Lotus Resiliens
by delectate
Summary: Rewrite of S3, post-311.  Following the failed attempt to confront the Fire Lord during the Eclipse, Aang and his friends, accompanied by Zuko, must discover a new path towards ending the war - and unraveling the course of their shared destinies. Zutara.
1. a westerly wind

**Author's Note: **This takes place after episodes 310 and 311, "Day of Black Sun". Obviously AU, even though I started this wayyy back after the DoBS episodes had been aired, in 2007.

Apologies in advance for the slight Haru-bashing. o.o; I don't really have anything against the guy; I just thought his interactions with Sokka and Toph might make for some silliness.

On with the show!

* * *

"_The spirit of the best of men is spotless—like the new lotus, in the muddy water which does not adhere to it_."

—Lalitavistara Sutra, "The Birth of Buddha"

* * *

-**chapter 1**-

-**a westerly wind**-

-o-

-o-

High in the air upon Appa's back, the war-weary group made their journey through the sky. Aang held the reins, sitting apart from the group at Appa's head; the rest of the travelers rested in the wide saddle.

The Duke was fast asleep beside Teo, who was also dozing contentedly. Toph, Sokka and Haru were stretched out opposite the sleeping boys, discussing their situation. Katara vacillated between listening to their conversation, and glancing over at Aang at the reins.

"I can't believe they knew of our plan," Sokka groused. "Now we've lost our one-in-one-hundred-years chance to kill Ozai. We were _that close_…"

"It couldn't be helped, Sokka," Toph reminded him, her hands behind her head. "Azula knew _exactly_ what she was doing by baiting us."

Haru spoke up. "But if we have the Avatar with us, isn't he powerful enough by himself to have taken down the Fire Lord? Why didn't he continue the attack on his own?" He looked over towards Aang at Appa's head as he spoke, his brow knitted with slight confusion. "Why did he—"

"And just _leave_ Aang there to fend for himself? We'd never do that." Katara spoke up quickly on Aang's behalf, shooting a hard look at Haru. "He's our friend, and we'd never make him face that situation alone." She instantly regretted her harsh words, knowing that Haru's question had been an innocent one, and not accusatory—but her emotions were running high, after being forced to leave her father and the other members of the Southern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom in the hands of the Fire Nation troops. She was sure their domestic prisons were nothing to laugh at.

_And Aang,_ she thought, looking over at him worriedly, _can he still even go into the Avatar State? His injury back in Ba Sing Se was so severe, and I haven't seen him even attempt to try it since then…_

"I'm sorry, Katara," Haru whispered, looking contrite. "I didn't mean to suggest we should just abandon Aang in the Fire Nation. I just…"

"It's all right. Don't worry about it. I'm sorry too, Haru," she said quietly, and half-stood to leave. Haru watched penitently as she slid herself over the saddle, and joined Aang at the front of the bison.

Haru turned back to face Toph and Sokka, who were looking at him dumbly until Toph spoke up. "I have a habit of nicknaming people around here," she said affably to the young earthbending man. "I think I'm going to call you 'Blockhead'."

Haru's face fell flat, and both his eyebrow and his newly-grown mustache twitched with repressed irritation.

Katara crawled up the flying bison's neck to Aang at the reins, folding her legs underneath her as she sat beside him. She watched him for a long, quiet moment; but he made no move to speak to her, instead staring straight ahead at the expanse of sky before them.

"Hi," she offered softly.

He half-turned, gray eyes lidded and face downcast. "Hi."

"Are you okay?" Katara asked. "Do you need anything? I think we saved some dried mango from our last food stock, and—"

"No thanks," Aang answered quietly, and resumed staring out into the clouds ahead of them. "I'm not really that hungry right now."

"Aang, I know you think that this is somehow your fault, that the attack on the Day of Black Sun didn't work," she started, her voice laced with hesitation. "But I want you to know that it's not, at all. We were all ready to carry out our plan. We just got caught in a trap. There was nothing you or anyone else could have done."

Aang sighed, and his entire slight body seemed to sag with the weight of his exhale.

"I appreciate that you're trying to make me feel better, Katara," he finally said, "but it doesn't change the fact that I missed the window of opportunity to take down Ozai. I'm the Avatar; it was _my_ responsibility." He looked over at her. "And now I'm afraid that when Sozin's Comet comes, Ozai will be more powerful than ever."

"But you can still defeat him, Aang," Katara consoled him. "You've mastered all the elements, you—"

"I haven't even practiced my firebending," he retorted as he turned away once more, his eyes becoming stony and serious. "And I don't have a teacher. If I can't firebend, I won't be able to beat the Fire Lord, no matter how good I am with the other elements." His head hung even lower, and Katara's posture deflated. She reached a tentative hand out to touch his shoulder, uncertain.

Suddenly they were interrupted by Sokka, yelling and pointing enthusiastically at something in the distance. "Look! _Look!_" he was shrieking. "That must be it!"

Katara and Aang both looked ahead, as did the other members now awake on Appa's back. "The Western Air Temple," Aang whispered, and his eyes brightened slightly with the prospect of encountering the last of the four Temples of the Air Nomads. Like the other temples, he had not visited it in over a hundred years.

And unlike the other temples, Katara silently prayed to herself that it was intact—and not abandoned, or remodeled, or destroyed as the other three had been. _Please, Spirits_, she thought. _Give him this one shred of hope._

The Air Temple was a stone fortress on a windswept mountaintop. It looked vacant and undisturbed, with green foliage growing steadily around the building's structure. Katara bit her lip and willed it to be habited as Appa began his descent.

None of them noticed the red war balloon, with the flaming crest of the Fire Nation insignia on its side, following them in the distance. Undetected, it coasted downward into the valley just below the temple, and landed there under the cover of trees.

-o-

-o-

Appa touched down on a large stone balcony and lowered himself, folding his legs underneath him as the group slid off of his back. Aang patted his head affectionately. "Thanks, boy." The bison grunted in response.

Teo and the Duke, holding onto Teo's wheelchair for support, were transferred from Appa's back to the ground by a Toph-made elevator. The young earthbending girl touched her toe to another slab of stone ground, reaching, feeling.

"Toph, do you feel anyone else here?" Aang inquired, and he waited as she moved her feet in her attempt to detect vibrations. Katara's heart began to sink as she watched the hope on Aang's face.

Finally Toph spoke. "I don't feel anyone besides us," she answered. She could feel from the tremors of the ground underneath him that the Avatar was disappointed. "I'm really sorry, Aang."

He nodded tersely, looking at the ground. With one hand he flicked his staff to open his glider, and went to the edge of the balcony. "I'm going to look around, just in case."

"Aang, wait!" Katara moved toward him as though she wanted to go with him, but he was already in the air and soaring to the upper levels of the temple. She watched him take off into the wind and disappear around a corner of the stone wall.

She knew she couldn't airbend, but she was worried about him, and didn't want to let him out of her sight. If he came across something as he had at the Southern Air Temple, when he'd found Monk Gyatsu's body beside the Fire Nation helmets…

Katara shuddered. She wanted to protect him, at all costs. He was so important to everyone. He was so important to _her_…

…_just how important __**is**__ he to me, exactly?_ She recalled the kiss he'd surprised her with on the boat before the attack, and felt her cheeks grow hot as they had before. _It's all so confusing._

Behind her, the group was adjusting to their new surroundings. "Come on kids, let's go set up camp," she heard Haru announce in a decidedly paternal tone; and while it was met with groans and complaints from the others, it was met with an indignant screech from Sokka.

"Wait a second," Sokka interjected, "_I'm_ the one in charge here, _I'm_ the one who makes the Dad-like authoritative commands! Furthermore, _I'm_ _not a kid!_"

"Well, you _are_ younger than I am, Sokka," Haru asserted haughtily, and the water tribe boy sputtered in disbelief.

"By like, _three months_! That's not it at all—we're essentially the same age, but you seem to think _you_ should be the leader just because you have a MUSTACHE!" At that, Toph, Teo, and the Duke snickered to themselves.

Haru, with his superior height, bore down on him. "You have a _problem_ with my facial hair?" he demanded sternly, but the effect was neutralized when Sokka began picking up clumps of the grass that grew sparsely on the temple's balcony and haphazardly attached them to his face.

"Look at me!" he crowed, as his voice dropped three octaves and he gestured wildly. "I'm Haru! I'm an authoritative figure because I have a BEARRRRD!" The others exploded into peals of laughter.

Haru scowled, and stomped his foot; a pillar of rock popped up from the ground underneath Sokka and tossed him, screaming, up into the air like a puppet. The laughter continued.

Katara ignored the group's antics, and continued to stare off into the distance, in Aang's departed direction.

-o-

-o-

Zuko deflated the balloon after his landing, hiding it to assure the Fire Nation insignia printed on it remained out of view. He looked up at the Air Temple, towering above the tree-laden valley that covered him from sight. The sun was on its way down to the edge of the horizon; it would only be a couple of hours until dusk.

_Zuko, this is by far the stupidest thing you've ever done_, he reminded himself. Another voice in his head, long repressed but finally beginning to be heard once again, said, _and at the same time, it's also the wisest._

The familiar feelings of worry and doubt set in. He looked up again at the temple. _Uncle, I wish you were here to tell me how to handle this._

Somehow he had to make it clear to the Avatar and his group that he was no longer a threat to them. The fact that he'd been following them around now for an entire year, fighting them and trying to capture Aang to bring home to his father, didn't make the prospect of doing so any easier.

He suspected the Avatar himself would be the most forgiving, in this case. Iroh had told him long ago that airbenders had been notoriously quick to forgive and forget trespasses, due to their changeable nature. He and Aang had saved one another's lives before—he had freed the Avatar from Zhao's clutches, albeit for his own purposes, and Aang had repaid him by not letting him freeze to death at the North Pole. Aang had even once expressed the desire to become friends with him. It was very possible that the young monk would believe him—and trust him—before the others did.

The others, the water tribe siblings and the earthbending girl, were likely to prove to be much more difficult. Particularly Katara, the waterbender.

She had let down her guard before him in the crystal caverns underneath Ba Sing Se, and shared with him the pain of losing her mother to a Fire Nation raid. He had confessed to the same loss, under different circumstances; and from then it had seemed as though they had momentarily bonded with one another. She had even offered to help heal the scar he'd suffered from Ozai, despite it being three years old, with water she claimed was from the Spirit Oasis in the North Pole.

And then, he'd gone and botched it up. _As usual, Zuzu_, Azula's voice helpfully supplied in his head. He shook it to clear it.

He had told her he'd changed, but he had betrayed the fragile trust he'd built with her. How could he expect to regain it?

His pack of supplies slung over his shoulder and his twin broadswords sheathed at his back, Zuko hoped he would figure out the answer to the last question before he reached the top of the mountain.

-o-

-o-

Soaring on his glider, Aang cruised the wind, looking for signs of life down below. "Hello? Anybody here?" he called. He touched down on another balcony, one much higher than the one the group had settled on, and folded his glider back into a staff, looking around curiously. There was nothing but stone and dust, and vines of plants growing steadily around the structure.

He followed the balcony as it wound inwards toward the center of the building, and eventually came upon a large, sturdy door. Three connecting pipes adorned the front of it, in the shapes of airbending spirals.

"The sanctuary," Aang whispered to himself, and realized that again, like the other temple sanctuaries, this door had most likely not been opened in over one hundred years. The last person to have done so would have had to have been an airbender.

He set his staff down on the ground beside him. With his hands he formed a vortex of air between his palms, and he lunged forward and bent the wind into the ends of the pipes.

The air traveled upwards, and one by one the pneumatic pipes sounded out like horns, low and haunting, turning as the air churned inside of them. Slowly the locks were undone, and the double doors swung wide open, the hinges creaking and groaning with disuse. The interior of the sanctuary was dark and dim.

Aang picked up his staff once more and, taking a deep breath, stepped cautiously inside.

-o-

-o-

Dusk had fallen. The sun had just sank beyond the horizon, and the sky was growing dark. The members of the group were curled around a fire, nibbling on their rations of food and talking quietly with one another. Toph was continuing to perfect the group's newest pastime; the subtle art of harassing Haru. Though they had slept on Appa's back during their journey, the Duke and Teo seemed ready for sleep once again.

Katara rubbed her arms as she looked out at the encroaching darkness from the edge of the balcony, her eyes worried. Sokka came to stand beside her.

"Any sign of him yet?" he asked, and he too appeared concerned when his sister shook her head.

"I should go look for him," she suggested, but he wasn't wild about the idea.

"Give him a little longer. Aang might have just needed to have some time alone, you know? Maybe he's got a lot on his mind to think about right now, especially after what happened on the Day of Black Sun," Sokka pointed out.

Katara nodded distractedly, and thought, _he's not the only one_.

"Hey, Haru, ol' buddy," Sokka crowed loudly, as he returned to the base campsite. "'Betcha never cleaned up after a _flying bison_ before, have you? Well, let me tell you what you need to do…"

With a sigh and one last look at the horizon, Katara turned to go back to camp. It was almost night.

-o-

-o-

Hours later she awoke with a start, as if by some inner alarm. Katara turned over in her sleeping bag, and gazed over in the direction of where Aang's blankets lay. Empty.

She sat up abruptly. _He's still not back, yet?_ Despite Sokka's earlier words, it didn't sit well with her. _It's not like him._

She slipped out of her sleeping bag, as carefully as she could so not to disturb the others—especially Toph, with her keen sense of hearing. There was no need just yet to wake the other members of the group. Katara knew they were all exhausted, and if Aang was simply poking around the temple somewhere still, there was no sense in depriving all of them of their sleep.

The only way to travel further up the temple was to follow a winding path at the far side of the balcony, and Katara found it with relative ease. To get to the next level, she had to climb down a small stairway first, and then climb back up across the opposite side. The darkness made it hard for her to see, even with the waxing moon in the sky; but she was determined to at least try, if she could.

As she maneuvered her way carefully in the dark, she heard a soft rustling sound nearby. She stopped, her heart pounding, biting her lip.

"Aang?" she asked the darkness, quietly. "Aang? Is that you?"

She moved cautiously in the direction she'd heard the sound, but suddenly heard it again—this time, behind her.

Before she could turn around, she felt an arm encircle her from behind—one hand grabbing her wrists and securing them together, and the other hand clapping over her mouth. A very familiar and somewhat raspy voice sounded in her ear.

"_Shhhhh. _Don't scream."

The combination of the hand holding her wrists and his low, whispered voice triggered a memory she would have rather soon forgotten. _Fire Nation armor. Ponytail. Scar. I'll save you from the pirates._

From underneath his hand, she gasped. _Zuko!_

-o-

-o-

* * *


	2. in the blood

* * *

_In separateness lies the world's great misery; in compassion lies the world's true strength._

- Buddha

* * *

-**chapter 2**-

-**in the blood**-

-o-

-o-

"_Don't scream._"

Upon hearing the raspy voice of her captor, Katara's eyes widened astronomically in the darkness, and she gasped underneath his hand.

_Zuko! _

Anger boiled up within her. Zuko's motives were always the same. _He's here to get Aang!_

Though her hands were bound, she was more than able to fight. Her substantially increased waterbending skills had given her more fighting confidence than ever before. With a yell, she reared her head back and knocked it hard against her captor's.

Katara felt the impact of the back of her skull meeting the front of his—_ohh, that __**did**__ hurt_—and Zuko let out a loud yelp. In his surprise, he released her hands.

She put some distance between them and summoned her element from its water skin. The waxing moon above them in the sky meant that her powers were on the rise, and approaching their zenith. She released a water whip and it snapped with ferocious strength, hitting him with such force that he was thrown into the air for several feet, and smacked against the wall of the temple. He fell to the ground, the air temporarily knocked out of him.

"I guess I'm not surprised that you managed to find us again, _Zuko_," Katara said scathingly, facing off with him and holding her water poised in the air, ready to strike. "You certainly showed your true colors in Ba Sing Se. But if you think I'm going to let you take Aang, you're—"

"I'm not here to take Aang!" he cried, lifting himself from the ground and getting to his feet rather shakily. Her whip had struck him hard.

Katara's expression went from irritated to livid as she shouted at him. "You expect me to believe your lies not just once, but _twice?_ Think again!" She attacked with a barrage of ice darts, her hair whipping around her as she let them fly.

He summoned his fire, and used it as a shield, melting the darts in multiple flashes of heat. She could tell he was struggling to find the correct form and stance—defense wasn't his strong point. Firebending was too much of an offensive technique. _Strange…why isn't he attacking, though, in retaliation?_

"It's not a lie!" he insisted, over the roar of his own flames as he deflected the ice shards. It only made Katara angrier.

"What, do I look like I didn't learn the first time around, Zuko?!?" She bent the water from a nearby bush—hearing him gasp in surprise, as she did—and released another water whip, this time in the form of a slashing blade. He repelled it again with his fire, but the force of their elements meeting so violently sent him reeling back once more against the stone wall of the temple, grunting as he struck it.

Quickly she formed ice restraints with the movements of her hands, and pinned his wrists against the wall, on either side of his head. Another two ice cuffs latched themselves against his ankles.

"Just try your bending, _now,_" she sneered at him, triumphant.

This time Zuko smirked in response, his golden eyes mocking her through the long dark strands of his hair, infuriating her further. "You've learned a lot, I see…but you've seemed to have forgotten, Katara," he chastised her, "that I have the Breath of Fire."

The fact that he'd said her name stunned her enough so that she didn't react as quickly as she could. She watched with wide eyes as he took a deep breath and blew a fiery mouthful of air on first one wrist, then the other, melting the ice almost instantaneously. He released the hold on his ankles just as she sent another whipping blade his way, shouting in fury with the effort; and he kicked his leg in a wide circle, his fire dispersing her element into scattered droplets and steam.

They faced off with one another, both in attack poses, each eyeing the other with suspicion.

"I told you," he persisted, "I'm not here to capture the Avatar! I didn't come to fight!"

"_Shut up!_" Katara screamed back, and she thought she saw him recoil at the rage in her voice. Tears of anger and frustration swam in her eyes. _Spirits curse him. He's going to take Aang away and ruin everything! He's just as evil as Ozai!_

_I hate him and I wish—I wish—_

"I _won't_ let you take him._ I won't let you destroy the only hope we have left!" _She felt her emotions spiraling out of her control as she shouted the words, her chest heaving as she panted for breath—and suddenly she felt the pull of the moon, made stronger by standing in its light, and its power flowing through her unbidden, unrestrained. She felt the push of fluid through her own body, the tidal waves of blood rising within her.

_Oh, no…._

She fell to her knees with the force of it, gasping; it had overtaken her so suddenly at the height of her anger. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zuko lower his fists slightly as he looked on her with a measure of concern.

"Are you—" he started to ask, but his voice was suddenly cut off by the choking of his throat. The blood vessels in his neck and surrounding his lungs were constricting, drawing inward. He held his throat with his hands, as if he could will the airways to open.

He dropped to the ground on his hands and knees, trying his hardest to breathe. He lifted his head to look at her, and his eyes, beginning to bulge, were stunned and disbelieving.

"What—is—wh—" he gasped, and Katara could only look over at him from where she knelt on the ground, her own blue eyes fearful and still angry, her fists clenching in the sparse grass around her.

Abruptly the ground trembled beneath them both, and a pillar of rock suddenly erupted from the earth underneath the Fire Prince. It tossed him high into the air, like a puppet, and the shock of it broke the bloodbending spell for both of them. Katara exhaled, her body relaxing from its tense hold.

Zuko landed rather roughly in the clearing of the balcony where the group had made camp. Toph brought her fists up in a sweeping gesture, and the rock around him bent into a tight prison, pinning his arms against his sides. He was still coughing and wheezing for breath.

Sokka leapt to his feet, brandishing his meteorite sword, as the rest of the group stared in open-mouthed shock at the new prisoner.

"_Zuko?!?"_

-o-

-o-

Toph stood very still, feeling vibrations in the earth. She turned in the waterbender's direction as Katara appeared from a rocky outcrop. "Katara, what did you _do_ to him?" she asked, curious. "His heart rate and the pressure of his blood are skyrocketing."

"N-nothing, we were just fighting," Katara replied distractedly, and approached him as Sokka and Toph did.

Sokka pointed the tip of his sword at the firebender's head. "You _followed us_ from the Fire Nation?!"

"I guess he didn't get enough action during the attack the other day," Katara retorted, glaring daggers at the Fire Prince.

Toph adopted a thinking pose. "Come to think of it, we didn't even see him on the Day of Black Sun. We fought Azula, but he was nowhere to be found…"

"Explain yourself!" Sokka thrust the sword's tip closer to the prisoner's nose.

Zuko coughed again, and managed to snarl. "Get that thing out of my face, first!" he demanded, and looked around from his stone and rock cage, eyeing the campsite. "Where is the Avatar?"

At that, Sokka leaned forward, squinting at him. "You know, you _really_ need to get over this one-track mindset thing of yours. It would make you a more well-rounded and interesting person."

Katara advanced on the trapped firebender once more, threateningly. "I told you," she warned, both her voice and her hands thick with ice, "you're _not taking him_. Not as long as I breathe."

Zuko met her eyes long and levelly, and she could see his marginally disguised anger and fear at what she'd done to him on the other side of the temple. "Yeah, breathing is the key phrase there, isn't it," he growled, and her frown became deeper.

"And _I_ told _you_," he turned his face from Katara to the others watching and listening, "that I'm not here to hurt or capture Aang, or any of you."

A beat went by, during which Toph's body posture relaxed. "He's telling the truth."

Sokka lowered his sword slightly, and he and his sister screeched in unison. "_What?_"

"He can't be," Katara asserted, turning from Toph to glare at him once more. "This is _Zuko_ we're talking about. He doesn't mean anything that he says."

"All I'm telling you is that he's not lying," Toph answered, "or at least he doesn't think he is."

"Well, we all know Azula's totally capable of lying through her teeth," Sokka pointed out, lowering his sword incrementally. "So I guess it's just a question of whether we think Zuko's capable of the same thing. They _are_ brother and sister, after all—"

Toph held her chin in thought. "You have a point there…"

Haru, who had approached the scene during their conversation, stepped in. He looked over at Katara as he spoke. "If he's deceived you guys before, why are you even questioning his motives, now? He's the Fire Prince! He's evil!"

Sokka coughed the word 'mustache' behind his hand, and Haru whirled on him with a furious look. "_What did you say?!?_"

The group had descended into chaos. Teo and the Duke were shouting their opinion to anyone who would listen, each trying to be heard over the other. Even Momo and Appa had resorted to growling and gibbering loudly in their own languages.

Raising her voice to be heard over the melee, Katara turned the topic of discussion back to their prisoner. "I'm telling you guys, it would be a _big mistake_ to trust what he says. He's selfish, inconsiderate, and a liar! He made me think differently for a moment in the crystal caverns—but it was all a charade, just so that I would heal his face!"

Having finally had enough of the indignity of it all, Zuko threw back his head and yelled, "WILL ALL OF YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT ME AS IF I WASN'T EVEN HERE?!?"

The entire group was interrupted by a strong air current whipping up the dirt around the campsite, and they shielded their eyes momentarily from it. The wind calmed to reveal Aang standing in the moonlight before them, holding several writing scrolls with one hand and the other still holding his glider. "Hey guys, I have great news! Wha—" He looked at each member of the group, and their stunned expressions. "…what's going on?"

Sokka grimaced and pointed to the earthbound Fire Prince.

"Zuko?" Aang asked, his eyes wide but his voice calm; and he placed the scrolls at his feet, approaching the firebender to look at him closely. The expression on his youthful face turned quickly from happy and carefree to serious. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Zuko appeared as though he had a sarcastic reply on the tip of his tongue, but he curbed it and swallowed before answering. He centered his gaze on Aang. "I've come to discuss the terms of a truce with you."

The young airbender sighed, a knowing and determined look coming over his face. Behind him, the mouths of the group members collectively dropped open in astonishment.

-o-

-o-

Aang sat lotus-style in front of Zuko's earth prison as they talked with one another. Sokka and Haru had since backed away from the discussion—most likely to continue their 'mustache' bickering—and Toph stood at the young monk's side, feet apart, arms crossed; a living lie detector.

Katara paced back and forth on the grass behind Toph and Aang, in plain view of the captured prince, blue eyes blazing. Zuko had to hand it to her—she was positively _fierce_ in her anger. _She would have made a fearsome firebender_.

"I'm begging you, Aang, don't do this," she spoke anxiously, shaking her head and shooting pleading looks at him while simultaneously delivering withering glares toward Zuko. "He's only going to cause us trouble."

"I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt right now, Katara," Aang replied, calmly trying to diffuse the apprehension and negativity that Zuko could see was radiating off of her. "I want to listen to what he has to say."

Toph jerked her thumb behind her, in Katara's direction. "Yeah, cool it, Sugar Queen."

The Avatar returned his attention to the immobile firebender. "Why now, Zuko? You've had plenty of opportunities to make peace with us earlier. What's changed?"

He paused, and thought of Ursa, his mother. "I know who I truly am, now."

"You want to elaborate a little _further_ on that?" Katara asked with sarcasm, obviously annoyed; and he felt a bristle of anger. _Amazing how she can push your buttons so easily, Zuko._ The inner voice he heard sounded suspiciously like Iroh's.

"My Uncle made me aware that the Avatar and I are connected," Zuko answered her. "I am not only Sozin's great-grandson…I am Avatar Roku's, as well, on my mother's side." Aang, as well as the others, expressed surprise and shock. "I have Roku's crown to prove it," he added, for emphasis.

Aang recovered from the surprise rather quickly, he noticed. "And what does this mean to you?"

"It means that I have a responsibility to more than just myself," Zuko replied. "I know that, now." His answer seemed to placate the young monk.

"Speaking of your uncle," Toph interjected, "where _is_ Iroh? Why isn't he traveling with you anymore?"

Zuko bowed his head—or at least as much as he could, while imprisoned in the rock. "When the Avatar was injured, my Uncle defended Aang and Katara from Azula. She incarcerated him and he was sent to prison in the Fire Nation." He looked up again to meet their eyes, and his voice lowered. "I not only betrayed you—I betrayed him, as well. I'm so ashamed now of what I did."

Katara scoffed. "So you left him to rot in jail, while you ran around scot-free?"

"I came for him, on the day of the eclipse," he answered hollowly, his eyes far away. "But he was gone; he'd broken out of prison. Now I don't know where he is.

"I want to find him…I have so much to tell him. I'm worried about him."

"That Iroh is one tough dude," Toph said. Her young voice held both admiration as well as a hint of reassurance. "If he can bust himself out of prison without your help, I'm sure he's doing okay on his own."

Aang continued the interrogation. "We ran into Azula in Ozai's secret underground bunker while we were there, but we didn't even see you during the Day of Black Sun, Zuko," he went on. "What else were you doing on that day? Where were you?"

He waited a beat before answering. "I was with my father," Zuko replied firmly.

Aang's eyes widened appreciatively. "You were with Ozai?" The firebender nodded.

"I told him that I disapproved of his methods; that he was wrong for the things he'd done—not only to me, but to the other three nations. I told him that we needed peace, not war. And I told him that I was leaving, to join you." Zuko fixed his eyes on the airbender's, and delivered his next words deadpan.

"And then he tried to kill me."

All three listeners were silent as they absorbed his words; even Katara's mouth fell open in stunned horror.

"In all of the battles we've fought, you and I," he went on to Aang, "I've never seen you once use firebending as a method of attack." Aang's posture deflated somewhat, and Zuko noticed the young monk's eyes had assumed a guilty expression. He deliberately gentled his tone. "So my guess is that you haven't perfected your technique."

He straightened his head as best he was able to in his rock prison, his gaze sturdy and his voice strong. "If you're willing to trust me and to let me help you and your group, _I_ will be your firebending teacher."

Katara sputtered once again in defiance, and even Toph looked a bit uneasy by the prospect. Only Aang remained unshaken by the Fire Prince's words, and after another moment, to the shock of the others, he broke out into a smile.

"Then let's call a truce." Aang looked up at the earthbending girl next to him. "Toph?"

After a second's hesitation, Toph brought her hands low, her palms facing downward, and released Zuko from his earthly bonds. Zuko stood on his own, listing slightly, and brushed the small amount of dirt and pebbles from his red tunic.

"W-what are you doing?" Katara fretted nervously, as Aang stood after righting himself with a gust of wind. "You're just going to let him go? You're going to let him roam around _freely,_ with us? He's going to kill us in our sleep!"

Zuko leveled a glare at her. Behind her, the remainder of the group had approached again from the background, looking on with curiosity.

Sokka was at Aang's side and put his hand on the boy's shoulder, all of his previous humor gone. "Aang," he said quietly, "are you _sure_ this is the right thing to do?"

The airbender looked earnestly into the Fire Prince's eyes, and what he saw gave him the confidence he needed. "Yep," he nodded. "I believe him, Sokka. Zuko has always been honest with us, even when he was chasing us everywhere."

At that, the firebender saw Katara turn her eyes away, folding her arms over her midsection almost protectively. His glare melted.

_She's the __**one**__ person I wasn't honest with_, he thought to himself, and felt a momentary shame once more. _If I am to ask for her help and assistance, I'll need to set right what happened between us._

Aang was still speaking. "And I _need_ to learn Firebending, if I'm going to do what I have to do." He turned to face the entire group. "I think we should give him a chance."

"…Toph?" Katara asked hopefully, thinking the earthbender would be more cautious.

A shrug. "He's definitely telling the truth," she replied. "So I'm with Twinkle Toes." Aang looked hopefully over at Katara, but she was still turned away, her arms folded.

"Fine," she managed tightly, after a moment. "You've all made your decisions, and I'll accept it…but that doesn't mean I have to like it." She kept her face turned and refused to even meet Zuko's gaze.

_I think I may have my work cut out for me,_ the Fire Prince thought.

"It's settled, then," finished Aang, and gave the firebender a genuine smile. Zuko tried hard to return it, but found he was unable to just yet.

"It's late, and I think all of us could use some sleep after this," Sokka stated, yawning for emphasis and motioning to the other members of the group. Everyone looked the worse for wear. "I personally feel like _I_ carried _Appa_ all day long, instead of the other way around." He cupped his chin in his hand with weary thoughtfulness. "A sky bison's life is actually _quite hard_."

Aang suddenly sprung to life. "Oh yeah! I almost completely forgot!" He hopped over to where the pile of scrolls lay on the ground, and with a flourish of air, returned with them in his arms. He dumped the pile of them unceremoniously before his friends, and picked one up, opening it wide for them to see.

"I found these in the Air Temple Sanctuary. It's been undisturbed for over a hundred years, and only an airbender can open the door. And LOOK!" He pointed at the elaborate script. "This is a note from the airbenders who lived here. This says there's _survivors _from the Fire Nation raid!"

Suddenly awake, Sokka took the scroll from Aang's hands and peered at it unbelievably, while the others leaned in with renewed interest. "Aang, are you sure?" Katara asked. "How do you know they're from the Air Nomads?"

"They used a special writing code that only airbenders know how to decipher," Aang answered confidently. "Trust me, it's real!" He spun around with glee. "If I can find out where they went from these notes that they left, we can find them! I won't be the last airbender, any longer!"

"All _right!_" exclaimed Sokka. "This is awesome! More Aangs—we can always use more of those," he threw in, and Aang laughed gaily, "—and with ol' Cranky McSparkypants himself here going to teach you firebending," he added, looking at Zuko, who frowned in annoyance, "we're pretty much set! We may just have a shot at this world-saving thing, yet."

The group dispersed to catch up on some much-needed rest. The waterbender and the firebender, not once looking at one another, strode purposefully to opposite ends of the campsite to sleep.

-o-

-o-

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, guys! Be on the lookout for ch 3:) 


	3. on solid ground

**A/N:** Since she pimped my last chapter so generously, I'd like to point you guys in the direction of a wonderfully-written post-series Zutara fic: _Ozai's Vengeance_, by Fandomme. Please read it if you get a chance—you won't be disappointed! And for those of you who have a preference for Zuko/Mai, check out Pawns, by Rhiannon B; another post-series fic.

For those of you who don't mind DoBS spoilers (but as of tonight will hopefully be up to speed!), read on!

* * *

Do not pursue the past.  
Do not lose yourself in the future.  
The past no longer is.  
The future has not yet come.  
Looking deeply at life as it is,  
in the very here and now, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.

—_Bhaddekaratta Sutta _

* * *

-**chapter 3**-

-**on solid ground**-

-o-

-o-

As Zuko felt the last residues of sleep slipping from him the next morning, he could swear he felt something _tap-tap-tapping_ on his forehead in a steady rhythm. His eyes closed and still groggy, he threw his hand up to his face to ward off or even catch whatever was continuously rapping against his skull—and ended up slapping himself in the forehead. A soft, girlish giggle ensued. Zuko groaned and covered his face with his arm, and wondered if it were possible to get one of the earthbenders to dig him a cave to hide himself in.

_This is what you chose. You got yourself into this, _a voice reminded him.

"Good morning, Prince Sparky," Toph sang sweetly as she hovered over him. "Time for angsty firebenders to rise and shine!"

He raised the arm only slightly, to see that the blind earthbending girl was balancing a tiny pebble on her toe. She must have been socking him in the head with it, before he'd woken up.

She stopped. "Seriously though," she deadpanned, looking at him with her vacant, sea foam-colored eyes, "don't you firebenders get up really early in the morning? You know, 'rise with the sun' and all that?"

Zuko's eyes felt like lead weights were holding them down, forcing them to close. His mouth tasted like dried, burnt fire-flakes. "Usually," he confessed, his voice scratchier than normal. "But I didn't sleep so well, last night."

Toph gave a small _hmph_ and folded her arms over her small frame. "Well, you'd better snap out of it. Looks like the group's going to be shoving off soon…and trust me when I tell you that you want to be _fully awake_ when you're holding onto a sky bison's saddle." She ambled off, her hands clasped behind her back; she kicked her heel slightly at the dirt left behind in her wake, and the pebble she'd played with earlier flew through the air and pegged him in the forehead.

"_Ow!_" He sat up and rubbed his head petulantly, scowling in her departed direction as he bit back a sarcastic retort.

He looked around at the campsite's bustling morning activities.

The kids were up and about, cleaning the campsite, cooking food, and packing together their supplies and belongings. Teo and the Avatar were poring over the airbender scrolls Aang had found in the Air Temple sanctuary, pointing and deciphering, and chatting about possible locations. The Duke was rolling up his sleeping bag and securing it tightly with string. Katara was cooking over a small fire, ladling something into hot bowls for her companions—pork and egg congee with green onion, he could tell by the smell of it. It smelled delicious. Zuko felt his stomach turn on itself with hunger, as his mouth watered ever so slightly.

Toph was dutifully assisting her, now that she'd finally acquiesced to leaving him alone. Even Momo, the lemur, was doing something useful; he was packing the bison's saddle with peaches and nuts in side pockets, to snack on later.

The only one who still slept on, in the group—sound asleep, and blissfully undisturbed—was Haru. Zuko watched him with aggravated envy.

Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw Sokka approaching the sleeping earthbender stealthily, on hands and knees, with a short sharp blade. When he was close enough, the water tribe boy reached out to lay the entire length of mustache hair over the blade's edge, prepared to slice it through.

"_Sokka!_" Katara's indignant yell from across the campsite startled her brother, and he winced as he withdrew the blade, clenching his fists in frustration. He stood up and regarded his sister.

"You just _love_ ruining my fun, don't you!" With that he stomped off angrily; and Haru awoke with a snort, his eyes flying open to witness the water tribe boy's proximity to him. He reached up to his face and felt for his mustache, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found it still intact.

Zuko rolled his eyes at the scene, and shook his head in disbelief. _I've joined forces with __**this?**_

The smell of food and his complaining stomach redirected his attention once more. He saw Katara and Toph fixing bowls of the pork and egg porridge, and finally rose to cross the campsite toward them.

Katara saw him coming and quickly lowered her eyes to the pot once more, ladling the food into another empty bowl. "I'm going to go give this to Aang," she sang out to Toph gaily, and jumped to her feet, scampering away just as Zuko walked up.

He shot Toph a questioning look, and all the young earthbending girl could do at sensing his confusion was ladle out another bowl of porridge and hold it out in his direction. "Here," she said to him gently, the edges of her normally brusque attitude softened.

Zuko looked at Katara's quickly retreating form, and then down again at the bowl of congee. A slight frown crept across his features. "Thanks," he said, just as quietly, as he took it from her hands.

-o-

-o-

Katara approached as Aang and Teo were still examining the Air Temple scrolls, the papers with complex drawings and diagrams spread out on the ground around them. Sokka had joined them a moment earlier, after his foiled sabotage attempt on Haru's mustache, and was now leaning over the other two boys and looking at the writings along with them.

"Aang, I brought your breakfast, minus the pork and egg—but I put in those boiled pistachio nuts you like," she announced cheerfully with a smile, still holding the bowl of porridge. She set it down at their feet and turned to face her brother with scorn, hands on her hips. "Sokka, I've told you before—leave Haru alone. You're developing a fixation with that poor guy's facial hair, and it's not healthy."

Aang threw a distracted glance in Katara's direction as he pointed at a figure on one of the scrolls. "Thanks. Hey Sokka, what do you think of this note here?" Katara folded her arms across her chest, a trace of impatience showing, as Aang went on. "It has to do with an important location connected with the airbenders. Teo and I have been trying to figure it out for the last half hour since I deciphered it. What do you think it means?"

Teo read it aloud. " 'In the place named not for one, but two; where love can move mountains.' "

Sokka rubbed his chin, completely ignoring his sister. "I dunno, it sounds like it might be a riddle," he suggested. His chin cupped now in his hand, he went on thoughtfully.

" 'Where love can move mountains'—that would suggest to me that mountains are somehow involved. Maybe this place is near a mountainous area, or a mountain range. That would mean it's gotta be in the Earth Kingdom." He scratched his chin more, narrowing his eyes in thought. "The 'love' aspect sounds like it might be connected to the earlier part; 'in the place named not for one, but two'—maybe it's referencing two people in love."

His head snapped up suddenly. "W-wait—that cave, that went through the mountain—the Cave of the Two Lovers—that must be what it's talking about!"

Katara's eyes brightened as well. "The name of the place made up of two peoples' names formed into one—Oma and Shu!"

Sokka jumped to his feet in exhilaration and stabbed his finger eastward, as Katara looked surprised and vaguely annoyed that her brother was stealing all the credit. "That must be it! _Omashu!_ The airbenders are hiding in Omashu!"

"Yeah, I thought of that," Aang confessed, and Sokka's mouth dropped. "The only problem with that," the young monk went on, looking confused, "is that Omashu is currently overrun by the Fire Nation."

Sokka deflated at his words. His face drooped as he sat back down next to Teo. "Oh, yeah."

The Avatar sat back on his heels. "Plus, we were just in Omashu a few months ago. We've been there twice, and have never seen any evidence of airbenders there."

"Is it possible that they're somewhere _near_ Omashu, and not hiding in the city itself?" Teo wondered; and Katara, finally fed up at being ignored, groaned and unleashed her pent-up frustration in a fierce whisper.

"Look, I'm as interested as anyone to find out where they are, but—don't you guys think it's _not_ a good idea for us to be discussing this sensitive information around _him?_" She pointed across the campsite at Zuko, who was still eating, chatting casually with Toph. "For all we know he could be a spy, and take this information back to Ozai!"

Aang blinked, looking at her curiously as Sokka spoke up. "Wow, you are _really_ paranoid about him, aren't you?"

"_What?!_ You mean you _trust_ him?"

Sokka grew momentarily serious. "I don't _trust_ him yet, Katara. But…well, look at him!" She looked over at the firebender and the earthbender, eating their meals. "Instead of following us around in his tank or ship or on a komodo rhino, like he used to do, he's actually sitting over there eating his food with Toph. He's a member of the Fire Nation _royal family_. He must have left everything behind, in order to join up with us." He looked searchingly at his sister. "Do you really think a guy like him—or _anyone—_would want to give all that up, if they weren't serious about it?"

Katara lowered her eyes. "I still think there's a possibility he could be lying," she said stubbornly, her dark brows knit together on her forehead.

Aang looked at her fondly. "I know you're just being overprotective, Katara," he said, "but you shouldn't worry so much. We have to develop trust with Zuko, if he's to become part of our group, and my firebending teacher. You should give him a chance…everyone deserves second chances." The waterbender ducked her head, temporarily cowed by his honesty.

"Back to the plan, though," Aang continued hesitantly, and both Sokka and Teo looked as though it were a welcome interruption. "Even if the remaining airbenders aren't hiding in the city itself, there's most likely some important information or maybe some clues we could gather by going to Omashu."

"Is there a way to get close to the city limits, around the Fire Nation's control?" Teo asked.

"Oh yeah, we got that covered; that shouldn't be a problem," Sokka announced with confidence. "We know of a way through one of the mountains surrounding the city—a secret tunnel passage. We've been through it before." He shrugged nonchalantly. "It's run by two big earthbending badgermoles, but they're actually pretty cool critters once you get to know them."

"_Badgermoles_, really?" Teo was excited. "I've always wanted to see one!"

"Then Omashu it is," Aang declared, getting to his feet once more. "After we've cleaned up and done some training today, we'll start heading east towards the Earth Kingdom again."

"Training?" Katara asked, blinking owlishly.

-o-

-o-

"And then," Toph continued, polishing off most of her congee rather ravenously, "I moved the earth so that he lost his footing. The Boulder was doing the splits!" She cackled to herself in amusement as she recalled the moment during the Earth Rumble. "Then I knocked him out of the ring."

Zuko looked impressed. "You held your own against all of those professional masters." He gave her a half smile. "That's pretty amazing, for someone as young as yourself."

She waited a beat, finishing the dregs of the soup, appearing nonchalant. Her words held the slightest tinge of sarcasm. "Don't you mean, for someone who's so young and _blind_?"

He finished his own remainder of porridge, tipping the bowl to his mouth to get all of it. "No," he said afterwards. "Your only handicap is your age, and experience…and that will only make you stronger, as you get older."

Toph tilted her head to the side, and regarded him with a quirking of lips. "You know, I kinda like you, Sparky."

He was about to respond, when Aang showed up in a flourish of wind before them. "Okay, Zuko, are you ready?"

Zuko looked up at him in surprise. "Ready for what?"

"For my first official firebending lesson with my new teacher!" Aang assumed a stance, planting his feet far apart and his fists in fighting position. "I'm ready to learn the serious stuff! I know all about the breathing techniques, so let's start with something I can use in battle!"

Zuko's eyes hardened. "Fine. We should wait another half hour until midday, though." He pointed up at the sky. "When the sun is at the highest point in the sky—_that_ is when your firebending skills will be at their peak."

"Okay. Half an hour. Sounds good!" Aang bounded away, presumably to play with Appa or Momo. Zuko watched him curiously.

"He seems to be in much better spirits now than he was a day or two ago," Toph noted beside him in a quiet voice, verbalizing the firebender's thoughts. "I think part of it is finding the scrolls from the airbenders. But I think the other part, might have been finding you."

Zuko looked on after him, her words lingering inside his head.

Toph looked straight at him with her unnerving, seeing-yet-unseeing eyes. Her voice was immovable stone. "Don't let my friend down, Sparky."

-o-

-o-

A half hour later, as Zuko and Aang were preparing to start their bending, Sokka pulled the young monk quickly aside.

"Make sure you practice somewhere kind of away from here," the water tribe boy reminded him quietly in a stern tone, his eyes shifting; and Aang's mood became disheartened almost instantly. "You know, away from Katara," Sokka went on.

The airbender nodded. "Right." His gray eyes held guilt.

Zuko, within earshot, said nothing; but he led both of them to a clearing on the opposite side of the temple, far out of the view or reach of the campsite. Aang walked behind him dejectedly, instead of traveling buoyantly on his air scooter as he'd done earlier in the morning.

Zuko stopped. "Here," he said, standing in the middle of the clearing, "this is a good spot to start." He observed the boy's downcast mood, and quickly sought to add: "Not much brush or trees to catch fire, and plenty of space." Aang nodded.

Arms crossed, he regarded the Avatar. "What exactly was that exchange back there, about?"

Aang looked up, surprised. "You mean with Sokka?" A curt nod. The young monk ducked his head again in discomfort.

"Well…when I was practicing firebending before, with another instructor, a man named Jeong-Jeong," he began, and Zuko's ears perked up at the name of the infamous Deserter who'd trained Zhao, "I got a little too careless and I accidentally hurt Katara." He looked up to meet the gold eyes watching him. "I burned her hands."

This time it was Zuko's turn to duck his head. "I see," he responded quietly; knowingly.

"She was okay—she healed herself. She has really amazing healing powers, you know." There was a tinge of pride in his voice, despite the shame of the moment prior.

Zuko recalled the moments in the underground crystal caverns of Ba Sing Se, and the blue eyes that reassured him. A soft hand, on his cheek, just barely touching his scar. _This is water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole._ _I've been saving it for something…important._

"Yeah," he said softly, turning away so the Avatar couldn't see his face. "I know."

"But I'm sort of afraid to firebend around her again, after what happened," Aang went on. "Guru Pahtik of the Eastern Air Temple said I had unblocked my fire chakra, and accepted the fact that as the Avatar, I'm a firebender. But I still don't know if I can do it, without hurting the people that I care about."

After a moment Zuko turned back to face him, arms crossed over his chest. He spoke firmly and with assurance. "To successfully bend fire, you have to focus on controlling the flames, first. To control them takes great willpower. You have to be aggressive, and confident."

Aang nodded obediently, his eyes wide.

"If you want to fight my father, Fire Lord Ozai," Zuko went on, "you can't be ashamed of what you're capable of doing, even around people who are important to you. Remember, he will not show you _any_ mercy whatsoever. You have to have the fortitude to stand up to him."

The young monk looked at him, and slowly his wide-eyed childlike expression became a smile of admiration. "Then you're the perfect one to teach me how to do that, Zuko," he said, his voice full of esteem. "You're the first person who's really stood up to Ozai—and gotten away with it."

Something inside Zuko felt uplifted at the Avatar's high regard of him, but the practical side of him caused him to shake his head. "The only reason I got away with it, was because I did it during the eclipse. If my father had been at his full power…" He shuddered to think of it. "I still wouldn't have been any match for him. I can redirect his lightning, but I can't conjure it on my own, yet."

Aang's eyes were wide again. "Will you be able to teach me how to do it? How to create lightning?"

Zuko fixed his gaze on him, sternly. The force of his will seemed almost palpable. "I will. I won't stop with my own training until I can do it, and show you how." He was rewarded once more with the airbender's boyish smile of approval.

"Come on," the Fire Prince said determinably, and angled his body in an attack stance. "Let's get started."

-o-

-o-

"To begin with," Zuko said, still holding his attack posture—feet apart and diagonal from one another, one arm raised over his head and the other out in front of him, both ending in fists—"you said that Jeong-Jeong was teaching you breathing techniques. These are essential for controlling your firebending, as your fire comes from a combination of your breath, and your own internal body heat. Proper breath control will help you direct and contain the fire you create."

To demonstrate, he took several long, concentrated breaths; in through his nose, and out through his mouth, still in his attack stance. Then he leapt forward, keeping his feet aligned but jabbing into the air with both fists, one then the other. He emitted a short, sharp yell through each motion, and from his clenched hands burst forth bright orange and yellow flames that dissipated quickly into the air. Aang watched with awe.

Zuko turned to him. "Now you try it. Start off with your breathing, and then channel that energy into your moves."

Aang adopted his pose, feet apart and arms up, fists at the ready. He held himself in check as he breathed in and out, slowly and purposefully.

He followed Zuko's lead, soundlessly leaping forward and punching the air—but no flames came forth. He stopped and looked over at the firebender in confusion, blinking.

"You're holding the breath the moment you punch. You need to keep breathing through the motions," Zuko reminded him. "The force of your breath when you exhale should be sufficient to generate fire. Try giving a small shout when you do it." To demonstrate again he resumed his posture once more, breathing in and out to exercise control. Moving forward he let out a rough cry—louder than he had previously—as he shot his fist into the air; and this time, a great plume of red and orange flame erupted from his thrown punch. Aang gaped in amazement.

Zuko brought himself out of the ending stance, feet together, holding his fists downward and still breathing continuously. He looked over at the Avatar, and Aang nodded.

Following the firebender's lead, Aang poised himself, taking several deep breaths and exhaling through his mouth. When he was finally ready, he leapt and threw his fist forward, yelling with the effort.

To his surprise, a bright bolt of red and orange flame shot from his hand, spiraling out into the air.

"I did it!" he shouted happily, leaping up and buoying himself with wind. "I can firebend!"

"That was good," Zuko praised him cautiously, his tone a bit more subdued, "but you'll need to really work on fully incorporating your breath into the bending. It's the only way you can truly control the flame."

Ever the zealous student, Aang was already doing more punches and jabs, marveling at the fire he could produce with exhales and short shouts. "Next you'll have to show me the footwork!" he crowed, inbetween fiery punches. "I want to do that trick where you leap into the air and spin your leg around, and—"

"Aang," Zuko started, his voice solemn with sudden gravity. The young monk stopped his motions and turned to face the Fire Prince, his countenance questioning.

Zuko stood facing him for a few moments, as if unsure how to proceed with what he wanted to say. He bowed his head.

"What is it?" Aang asked, curiously.

"In the crystal caverns, underneath Ba Sing Se…I was wrong. I turned on both you and Katara, and…" He paused. "I know now, how wrong it was to have done that to both of you." He looked at the airbender once again. "I'm sorry."

Aang's expression went from innocent curiosity to gentle understanding. "Zuko, you don't have to apologize to me. I know you were confused, and you were misled by Azula. I can't say I agreed with the choice you made back then…but part of me can understand why you did what you did."

Frowning, Zuko wasn't placated by the sudden absolution. "But if I hadn't done what I did, if I hadn't fought against you—you might not have been injured by my sister while you were in the Avatar State," he went on. "You wouldn't have almost died—"

"But I _didn't_ die," Aang reassured him. "Katara saved me." Zuko nodded, his head still bowed with remorse.

"It's all right, Zuko," the young monk continued, offering him a small and genuine smile. "I've already forgiven you." And Zuko knew that it was true.

He raised his dark head and golden eyes, and spoke quietly and sincerely to the boy in front of him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Aang gave him a slight smirk. "Although, I don't think Katara's ready to forgive you, just yet."

Zuko nodded. "I realize that. I was hoping she'd take into account that I approached her at night, when her powers would be stronger than mine," he said pensively. "But she took advantage of the fact that I was the more helpless one." He shook his head, recalling the moment she'd bent his blood. It had secretly both thrilled and terrified him. "She's quite volatile."

Aang snickered, unknowing the full extent of Zuko's meaning. "Yeah, she's pretty unpredictable like that. That's the water element, for you." His expression gentled again. "But, don't lose hope. It just might take a while." Zuko nodded again, and vaguely wondered who was the pupil and who was the instructor here.

Aang took up his firebending stance once more. "Let's try it again."

Zuko got into posture beside him, and they continued practicing.

-o-

-o-

Later that afternoon, the group was packed and ready to shove off. Haru and Toph were busily loading Appa's saddle with their supplies and sleeping bags, and Sokka and the Duke were supervising the entire procedure, occasionally offering constructive criticism. "You're putting that in the wrong direction!" Sokka yelled. "Sideways, _sideways!_" A pebble knocked against the water tribe boy's head. "_Ow!_"

"Oops! _Sorry_," giggled Toph sweetly.

Katara had just finished washing the group's dishes in a nearby pond, and was bringing them back to be loaded onto the bison's saddle. "Do you guys have a handle on everything, Sokka?" she asked, as she brought them over.

"Yeah, we're fine," Haru responded, to Sokka's consternation.

"Yeah, we're _fine_," Sokka repeated, eyeing his facial-haired nemesis warily.

Aang and Zuko reappeared in the clearing, both looking a bit tired and winded after having finished their work. Aang adopted his air scooter and zoomed over to Katara's side. "Hey, Katara!"

"Aang!" Her smile was genuine as she greeted him, and from behind him, Zuko watched it spread across her lips with a vague feeling he identified as resentment. "How was your firebending practice?"

"It was great!" Aang responded, and before she could reach to envelop him in a hug, he blew a gust of air from his mouth and catapulted himself onto Appa's neck. She watched him sail through the air with surprise. "Firebending's all in the breath, and being an airbender actually gives me an advantage!" he crowed, from the bison's head.

Katara lowered her arms, staring as Zuko approached the bison. The two eyed one another cautiously, but the look in her eyes felt as though it could freeze him. "Well I hope it doesn't involve _too much_ hot air," she said scathingly, directing her words to Aang but her gaze at the Fire Prince. "We already have enough of that with us, as it is." Zuko's good eyebrow settled into a golden-eyed frown.

A peal of laughter was heard from Aang. "Good one, Katara."

Everyone managed to climb onto the great beast's saddle, and settled in for the ride. Toph turned her head vaguely in the direction where Zuko sat, as he looked around slightly confused. "Are you holding onto something, Sparky? Remember what I told you about—"

"Yip-yip!" crowed Aang, and Appa lifted off into the air. Zuko yelped and clung to something, as the bison quickly gained altitude.

Teo was holding a map, on which many of the numerous Earth Kingdom cities were marked. "Looks like we'll be heading eastward. We'll probably have to make a couple of stops on the way to Omashu."

"Omashu?" Zuko's ears perked up from where he'd finally gotten a hold on the bison's saddle. "The Fire Nation is in control of Omashu. Why are we going there?"

Sokka started to explain to him, but Katara interrupted him from the other end of the saddle. "_Someone_ is talking and asking why we're going to Omashu," she said, snootily, "and the answer to that someone is, that we believe we might have some allies wandering around there."

Zuko glared at her. "It's not 'someone', it's _me_," he asserted stubbornly, "_Zuko_."

Katara threw her arms up in the air, not meeting his gaze. "_Someone_ is still talking, even though they're way out of line and have already had their question answered to what should have been their satisfaction."

Zuko's obstinacy melted, to be replaced with annoyance. Sokka leaned in to whisper to him conspiratorially, patting the Fire Prince on the shoulder.

"Yeah, buddy. Welcome to _my_ _life_."

-o-

-o-

At a dry and dusty desert inn and tavern on the edge of an Earth Kingdom town, an old and stocky man, dressed in traveler's clothes with his graying hair tied in a low ponytail, stopped in for a drink. He quenched his thirst at the bar and looked over to a table by the window, where he saw that another old man sat alone by a Pai Sho game board.

The old traveler smiled to himself.

He approached the game player, stopping before the table. "May I sit down?" he asked gently, and the Pai Sho player smiled enigmatically in return, and nodded to him.

"Please do. The White Lotus opens wide to those who know her secrets."

-o-

-o-


	4. fuel for the kindling

**A/N**: Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback so far. It's been most valuable. I appreciate the insights as to my portrayal of the characters, and for those of you who are hoping for more Teo/the Duke screentime (or fictime), even though this chapter is Katara/Zuko heavy, never fear; I've got two subsequent chapters that will focus on Teo and the Duke's character developments, and their interactions with the other members of the group. :)

Onwards!

* * *

_Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much  
as your own unguarded thoughts._

_Develop the mind of equilibrium.  
You will always be getting praise and blame,  
but do not let either affect the poise of the mind.  
Follow the calmness, the absence of pride.  
_—_Sutta Nipata _

* * *

-**chapter 4**-

**-fuel for the kindling-**

-o-

-o-

The sky had been dark for hours, but the group still traveled on Appa's back high among the clouds, with nothing but water below them. They had left the Western Air Temple more than nine hours ago, yet they still had yet to see the westernmost part of the Earth Kingdom appear in the view below them as land. Katara was getting worried.

Toph, Teo, and Haru were surprisingly quiet. They were all getting sleepy, she noticed—particularly the Duke, the youngest. He was seated next to Teo, curled up against the side of the saddle. His small dark head was drooping as he was unwillingly giving in to slumber; but he fought it, righting it once more and blinking profusely.

Katara's eyes softened. _He's just a little boy. He should be warm and comfortable, having bedtime stories read to him by parents tucking him in before bed, telling him that there are no monsters, here. Instead, he's riding on the back of a giant sky bison, as an orphaned war refugee. _The softness dissipated and took on a hardened, iced-blue edge, as her gaze shifted from the Duke to the Fire Prince.

Zuko, too, was near dozing, his dark hair hanging in his half-lidded eyes and partially covering his scar. Succumbing to sleep, he seemed almost younger and more vulnerable than when he was awake; his face having lost the indeterminable scowl he always wore, his features relaxed instead of tense and on guard. It was hard to believe her eyes, but Zuko looked almost serene—not at all like the testy Fire Prince she once knew. Bit by bit, Katara's reserves of anger began to crumble, as she sensed that the slight changes in him she saw now weren't only brought on by fatigue.

She'd never really had the chance before to study him for any length of time, up close—they had always exchanged quick glances right before battles—but with his shaved head, breastplate of armor, and his sneering face and scar in full view, he hadn't exactly been the picture of prettiness to look at, back then. Intimidating, yes; but Katara had never been one to let intimidation stop her from standing up to someone. She smirked inwardly to herself with pride as she fleetingly recalled their second meeting, when she had stolen the waterbending scrolls and he'd tied her to a tree to get her to talk. He'd circled her menacingly, tormenting her with her mother's betrothal necklace, and she had done all but spit in his face. _Go jump in the river! _

She instinctively fingered the smooth, carved pendant at her neck, deep in thought.

But since Ba Sing Se, and the underground crystal caverns, she'd managed to get a better look at him. At first with his somewhat scruffy and browbeaten appearance, he had appeared confused and lost. But now, with his longer, undone dark hair—she was surprised he wasn't bothering to keep it up in a traditional Fire Nation topknot—and loose-fitting red tunic, he seemed to be freer, without some of the heavier burdens he'd carried before. Everything about him gave the impression of having been somehow loosened, as though he'd gone through some kind of inner unraveling.

_Maybe he really __**has**__ changed,_ she wondered.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Sokka elbowing her in the ribs. "What's with you?" he asked her in a harsh whisper, so as not to wake the others. "You have this weird look on your face."

Katara scowled, abruptly averting her gaze. "Nothing," she hissed. She leaned to look over Appa's saddle at the view below them, before directing her eyes to Aang at the bison's head. "Have we reached land yet?" she whispered to her brother.

"Not that I can see," he returned, only giving it a half-hearted squint. He let out a great yawn. "But I'm sure Appa's more exhausted than we are, so we'd better reach it soon so we can camp for the night."

It was then that they both heard the shrill yell from Aang, which woke up the sleeping kids in the bison's saddle. "_Finally!_" he crowed, and Sokka and Katara looked out in the darkness to behold a peninsula of land ahead of them—the beginnings of the western end of the Earth Kingdom. They were still many, many miles away from the mountain range harboring Omashu, but at least they had made some headway towards getting there. Appa descended, growling his own approval, and the kids made ready to land in a small forest clearing relatively close to the beach.

Toph tumbled out of the saddle onto the ground as they landed, and kissed the hard earth underneath her hands and knees. "Oh rock," she cried dramatically, "_I've missed you._"

"I'm sure it missed you, too," Sokka offered, as he casually strode by her on the way to set up base camp.

Katara hopped off of Appa and made her way to the clearing, looking as she went through the group's bag of food rations, which was pitifully low. "We're going to have to replenish our food supplies very soon," she suggested to the group. "We don't have much left. I think we should forgo eating tonight, and look for food sometime tomorrow." She pulled out some dried fruit and nuts from the bag. "We'll have enough to make some soup in the morning. But whatever else we have, I think we should give to the youngest to eat first." The Duke's tired eyes brightened a little at her words, as did Teo's.

Zuko's stomach was turning on itself again—it seemed as though he was _always _hungry, lately—and his good ear snapped up at the phrase _forgo eating tonight_. "What are the rest of us supposed to do if _we're_ hungry, then?" he asked, not unkindly.

But to Katara, already on edge from her memories and previous experiences with him, the question sounded anything but selfless.

She frowned at him sternly. "Unless you plan to take food from a younger child's mouth, I suggest you forage for your own food tonight," she snapped.

He gave her a bewildered glare. "I can't believe you'd even suggest that I'd do such a thing," he replied crossly, his temper rising; but Sokka held him back with an arm.

"Hey," the water tribe boy interrupted, trying to make peace, "let's not get in an argument about this. We're all tired and hungry, but for right now I think Katara's right. We'll forgo eating tonight." He put a supporting hand on Zuko's shoulder, and Katara felt her mouth drop open at the sight. _Sokka is consoling the Prince of the Fire Nation?_ "Tomorrow morning we'll hunt for more substantial food, like meat."

Sokka saw Aang's lip quiver, and he hastily added, "—And veggies." The Avatar broke into a tired smile.

Zuko calmed himself, bowing his head slightly. The rest of the group wearily agreed and went about setting up sleeping arrangements. But as Zuko began arranging his own, he felt something substantially hard sock him in the head.

"_Ow!_" Thinking it was Toph throwing rocks at him again, he whirled on her; but she shrugged.

Aang snickered. "Momo wants to share his fruit with you!"

Sure enough, the lemur was seated on a tree trunk off to the side, chittering and holding a moon peach similar to the one he'd just hurled at the Fire Prince's head. Zuko bent to pick up the slightly bruised peach, brushing it off on his tunic. "Thanks…I think," he responded gruffly.

But just as he was about to take a bite of it, the lemur had apparently had a change of heart—Momo leapt at him, plucking the peach out of his hand and leaping off into a nearby tree. Zuko was left staring at his empty hand, while Aang laughed out loud once more. Even Haru and Sokka and the others chuckled and tried to hide their smiles; Momo's antics had diminished the tense feeling from a moment earlier.

"That's _it!_" Zuko roared in frustration, and made an attempt to chase after Momo. "Give me back my peach, lemur!"

Momo leapt about in the treetops, holding both peaches in his hands, scolding him loudly in his gibbering speech. He tossed both peaches to Appa, who swallowed them whole with his wide jaws, grunting contentedly.

"I guess he realized Appa needed it more than you did, Zuko," Aang confessed gently. "Don't worry, we'll find more tomorrow."

The Duke looked down at his ration of fruit and nuts, and then forlornly over at the sulking, teenaged firebender on the opposite side of the clearing.

Later that night, as the group slept, somewhat restlessly because of their hunger, Zuko awakened from a slight noise he heard at the other end of the campsite. When he turned over in his makeshift sleeping bag, he saw the Duke returning to his own bed and crawling inside it once more.

Zuko looked down at the ground just next to him, and spied a small pile of nuts resting on a banana leaf.

His shame was overwhelming.

-o-

-o-

The next morning, Katara rose early to prepare food for her companions with the last of their rations. After using her bending to wash and alternately slice the ingredients, she began gathering twigs for a cooking fire. The youngest, Teo, Toph and the Duke, who had eaten the previous night, were repaying the favor by collecting more roots and vegetables to add to the soup.

She was still angry at Zuko for his comment the previous night. It was obvious, to her at least, that he was still as spoiled and selfish as ever. Always thinking about himself; always putting his own needs before others. _We're completely foolish if we think he's going to be different, now._ _He hasn't changed, one bit._

Glancing over at the other end of the campsite, where he was just waking up, she formulated a plan.

She marched to the middle of the clearing and looked pointedly at Zuko, who was now awake and shaking off the vestiges of sleep. "Who wants to help me make a fire to cook with?" she asked loudly. He raised his head to look at her.

She watched as his good eye widened, most likely at the fact that she was staring directly at him, and virtually asking for his assistance. He opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by Haru, who rushed to her side.

"Let me, Katara," the earthbender suggested, and Katara turned from Zuko to bestow a graciously devoted smile upon Haru.

"_Thanks_, Haru," she gushed, turning away toward the cooking pit, but making certain to throw another glance in the disgruntled Fire Prince's direction. "You're such a _big help_ around here."

Haru bent two flint rocks into one another, sparking a low fire under the pot she meant to cook with. Katara waved at the small flames, and in another pointedly loud voice, lamented, "Oh, look—the fire isn't strong enough. I wish we had the means to make the fire _stronger_."

Again, Zuko opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off once more; this time by Aang, who had been hovering over Katara anxiously since Haru had stepped up. "I'll do it, Katara!" The Avatar blew a gust of wind at the small fire, which increased in intensity.

Katara risked another look at Zuko. He was still sitting on the ground near his sleeping bag, his head bowed in either consternation or anger—she didn't know which. _But I'll find out._

"You see, everybody?" she asked the group at large, and leveled her smug blue eyes on the Fire Prince. "We can do all this, even _without_ a firebender." She folded her arms across her chest in satisfaction. _You see, Zuko? We __**don't need**__ you._

Apparently he'd gotten the unspoken message. Zuko stood swiftly, his head still bowed, and strode with angry purpose in the direction of the thick forest surrounding the campsite.

Aang's head darted up. "Zuko? Where are you going? Are we going to train today?" He recoiled slightly when he saw the Fire Prince turn and deliver a withering glare.

"Later. I need to be alone." Zuko's voice was calm, but his fists were clenched. He left the clearing, and the remaining kids turned to one another.

Sokka faced his sister, his hands in supplication. "Katara, are you _crazy?_" he hissed, trying to disguise his frustration in a fierce whisper. He pointed in the direction of the departed firebender. "Do you _really_ want to piss off somebody who can _breathe fire?_"

Katara set her chin. "I'm not afraid of him," she seethed quietly, but her brother shook his head.

"Maybe not, but picking on him isn't going to make our situation any better," he scolded. He sighed, a gust of irritation, and gathered his boomerang and a few other supplies. He motioned toward Haru. "You. Fu Manchu. Let's go hunt for some food."

Haru scowled but complied, stroking his facial hair and whining a bit as he followed Sokka out of the clearing. "But it's not just a mustache, it's a _goatee_…"

Aang and Katara found themselves momentarily alone. She was agitated, her arms folded over her chest and her dark brows knit together in a frown—clearly oblivious to the young monk's shy and questioning glances.

"Umm…Katara?" he asked quietly, but she turned from him and stomped off into the forest in another direction.

"I'll be back later," she muttered, as an aside. Aang's posture deflated, and he frowned as well before taking off from the clearing on his glider.

Moments later, the trio of youngsters returned from their vegetable harvest. Teo and the Duke looked around the campsite, surprised. "W-where is everyone?" the Duke asked, confused.

Toph listened with her feet. "They're all scattered around in the forest." She stepped forward with her toe, lightly, and felt the vibration caused by the heat from the cooking pit. Her lip quirked upwards in a half-smile. "Oh, look! Soup!"

-o-

-o-

Alone in a separate clearing of the forest, Zuko tried to calm his rampant emotions. He was hungry, he was still tired—after not having slept well because of hunger—and he was frustrated by Katara's insistence upon making him feel unwelcome.

Most of all, he was still frustrated with himself.

_I'm being childish_, he thought out loud in his head. _I shouldn't let what she says affect me, and yet it does._ _Maybe it's because she has a point—I need them, perhaps more than they need me. Even the Avatar would be fine with his firebending, as long as I taught him the essentials. But alone, I wouldn't stand a chance at defeating my own family and making right what's wrong._

The only thing he could offer the Avatar's group that had any kind of value in terms of protecting them, as well as being something he could teach to Aang, was the ability to bend lightning like Azula. He could redirect his sister's blasts, without problem…but generating the lightning on his own seemed more difficult.

_I __**have**__ to learn it._

_It's the only way they'll accept me._

He struggled with his clouded thoughts for several moments, until he was able to evoke his memory of Iroh's wisdom, concerning lightning. …_It was a technique I picked up, from watching waterbenders. Waterbenders deal with the flow of energy. A waterbender lets their defense become offense._

He recalled the easy, flowing movements that his uncle had demonstrated; in particular, the one that had saved his life in Ozai's bunker. _In…and out. Ebb…and flow. _Zuko practiced taking several deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling rhythmically. He closed his eyes as he did, relaxing his body and letting himself grow calmer, more still.

He raised his arms and began the motions; sweeping his arms in slow, measured arcs, one then the other, continuing to breathe through the movements as he did them. As he did he began to feel more at peace, tranquil. He thought he could feel the movement of the _chi_ that Iroh had spoken of flowing through him, surrounding him before it passed through his body again and again.

Zuko was so caught up in the actions of what he thought were waterbending moves, that he didn't see or hear the master herself sneak up behind him and start watching him from the trees.

He concentrated, still leaning into the motions as he moved his arms—and with a gust of breath he switched his stance, ready to fire into the sky what he hoped was a bolt of blue lightning.

"You're doing it wrong."

The shrill feminine voice interrupting him caused Zuko to suck in his breath and miscalculate. Instead of lightning, bright red and yellow flames discharged from his fingers, and the force of the explosion sent him reeling backwards with a yell and falling into a nearby tree. He grunted as he smacked into it.

He heard a short, patronizing laugh, not at all like the one he'd heard from Toph when she'd been genuinely amused; and he knew it was her. _Waterbender._ He growled with impatience and got to his feet, facing off with her.

"What exactly do you think you're doing, anyway?" Katara asked in a clipped, haughty tone, her eyes narrowed at him. "It almost looked to me like you were trying to do _waterbending_ moves, although I have no idea why a firebender would be trying something like that." She shrugged daintily, her nose in the air, and waved her hand almost nonchalantly. "Anyway, you were doing it wrong."

"Is that so." Zuko's voice had a hard edge as he raised his head to look at her.

He debated with himself. He could ask her to help him, to show him the best way to do waterbending techniques, since she was so skilled in the art herself. She would probably turn him down right off the bat. He could then beg for her help, like a lowly, pathetic sea slug.

_No way. _Instead, his obstinate pride reared its ugly head.

"And I suppose you think it's _your_ job to go around telling people these things?"

She sputtered, her anger rising. "I thought you would want to know just how _stupid_ you look!"

"_Stupid?_" Zuko couldn't believe what he was hearing. He pointed a finger at her. "I'm not the one hiding behind trees and _spying_ on people! Why don't you leave me alone, and mind your own business!"

"This group _is_ my business, Zuko," she said, her voice lowering to become the deadly ice-cold tone he was familiar with. "It's my job to hold the group together, and to protect everyone, especially the younger ones—and _especially_ Aang. And if you're going to do nothing but cause trouble for us, then dealing with you has become _my business_."

And as she spoke, daggers of ice began to take shape in her clenched fists, from the water that had slithered there out of the skin slung at her waist.

"I see. So that's how it is," he replied evenly; and in his own fists his daggers of flame ignited, sparking into a low burn. He swallowed, and he noticed that she watched his adam's apple move in his throat with interest. He narrowed his eyes.

"Come on, then," he challenged her. "Fight me."

Katara's features hardened once more as she held the ice daggers up. "Zuko—"

"Fight me! I know you want to. I know you think the situation you're finding yourself in right now is somehow my fault. I know that your father and your other friends are still held captive in the Fire Nation, after the Day of Black Sun. I know you're still mad at me because of what I did back in Ba Sing Se.

"I know, because I was mad at myself!"

Her face betrayed surprise at the words as well as at the emotion behind his shout; but Katara's stance didn't waver.

"I did the wrong thing when I was in the crystal caverns, and I'm paying for that mistake now," he said firmly. "Because of what I did back then, I will be making reparations to everyone, for as long as I have to, to make things right again.

"But that won't make things right for you, right now. The only thing that will is if you take out your anger on me. You were starting to do that when I first appeared in your camp two days ago, but we were interrupted." He felt a momentary chill in his blood as he recalled the moment she'd made his own body turn on itself.

He lifted his chin again, defiantly. "So now you can finish what you started. Go ahead, Katara. Do it."

She looked at him with a strange, horrified sort of fascination written on her face. He was sure it meant she thought he was crazy. "You don't know what you're asking," she said lowly, in warning.

"But I do," he asserted, his voice strengthened. "I'll defend myself as best as I can, but I won't attack you."

Katara was hesitating, holding her ice daggers in check; but something in his eyes spurred her on, and she suddenly moved toward him as though to attack. He braced himself to retaliate.

Their actions were cut short by a whirlwind of air, and both shielded their eyes. When the wind cleared Aang was standing between them, holding his arms out on either side of him, holding them back.

"_Stop it_," the young monk ordered, looking from one to the other. "Stop it, both of you. I won't tolerate any more of this infighting." His glare was serious. "You both need to calm down and stop reacting to each other so much."

Both waterbender and firebender looked immediately stricken to have been caught. Katara's ice melted back into liquid form, and Zuko retracted his fire blades with a small puff of dark smoke.

Aang looked at the Fire Prince. "Zuko, I think I need to talk to Katara, alone." The waterbender's head snapped up, her expression somewhere still between hardened and wounded.

Zuko nodded brusquely, and lowered his head as he walked out of the clearing. He didn't risk a glance over at Katara as he did.

-o-

-o-

"Katara," Aang began gently, looking at her with his big, honest gray eyes, "you can't keep picking fights with him."

She folded her arms about herself, protectively. "I _know_, Aang." She sighed. "I just—I don't know. Every time I look at him, or he opens his mouth and says something that could even be construed as less than perfect, I just remember what he did in Ba Sing Se, and it brings everything back." She looked into his eyes, her own blue ones shimmering with concern. "I remember holding onto you after Azula hit you with lightning, and…thinking you were dead. I just can't help myself." She ducked her head. "I'm sorry."

Aang was visibly moved by her emotion. "It's okay. I know how hard it must have been to have seen me fall. But you were there to save me, and everything turned out all right." He conveniently neglected to mention his blocked chakra. "For what it's worth, you know, Zuko is sorry, too."

She nodded tightly. "That's what he says. And I want to believe him, I just…" She trailed off, looking away, unable to finish her sentence.

Aang finally formed a small smile. "I'm really glad you're so protective of me, though."

Katara turned her head back to look at him for a long moment, before breaking into a tentative smile of her own. "It's just…part of my nature, I guess," she offered lamely.

The young monk's face fell slightly at her answer, and Katara felt a pang of guilt. "Oh…right."

They both stood awkwardly in front of the other now, looking alternately and the ground and the sky and the forest around them. Katara crossed and uncrossed her arms, and Aang scratched his head.

Finally he gathered his wits and faced her again. "Katara," he began, and she snapped instantly to attention.

"Yes?"

"What do you think about what happened on the Day of Black Sun?"

She blinked, and looked as though she were compiling her thoughts to give an extended answer on the subject of their attack on the Fire Nation; but he recognized the glance and shook his head. "I mean…about what happened, between _us?_"

He watched her expression carefully. Her blue eyes softened then, as she looked upon him…but after another moment, they lowered with uncertainty, and something resembling guilt. She ducked her head against his earnest gaze.

"I—I don't know, exactly, Aang," she responded truthfully and quietly. "I know that I care, _a lot_, about you." She seemed suddenly nervous and a bit sad, as though it were something she was uncomfortable to discuss. The dirt at her feet appeared to be vastly intriguing.

"I care a lot about you, too, Katara," he said cautiously, his gray eyes searching her face for answers.

"And…what happened that day was…_unexpected_," she continued with deliberate care, as she looked back up at him. "It wasn't a bad thing, not at all…I just…I think…"

She paused. "I think…I need time to think about things, now."

"Oh." Aang clearly did not understand what thinking about things had to do with anything. He loved her, he'd do anything for her, he'd gone as far as to even kiss her; and she wouldn't need to really think about things, unless—

Oh.

_Oh._

"Please, Aang," she whispered, her eyes full of sorrow and begging his forgiveness. "Give me some time to think about this. It's just a little bit surprising, and new, to think about. I don't want you to—"

"Okay. I get it. It's okay, Katara." He opened his glider once more, hiding his face from her, and prepared to take off from the clearing on it.

"Aang—" she started again, moving toward him; but he was already lifting off into the air, and in another moment he was gone from her view.

-o-

-o-

Zuko grudgingly returned to the campsite. He passed by Teo, Toph and the Duke as they hovered over the cooking pot, and went directly to his sleeping bag and meager supplies, dropping roughly into a seated position. He covered his face wearily, and ran his hands through his disheveled hair.

Toph sipped from a cup of vegetable soup. "Hey, Prince Sparky," she called out amiably, motioning in his direction. "Come have some soup with us." Teo and the Duke looked on with slightly shy but curious glances.

"I'm not hungry."

Toph snorted, in a manner that was decidedly unladylike. "Who do you think you're kidding? Yes you _are_. I can feel your stomach rumbling from over here like the footsteps of an angry sabertooth mooselion."

Zuko sighed, partly in annoyance and partly in resignation. _Well, she's __**right**__, after all._ He got to his feet again and joined the two boys and one girl at the cooking pit.

Toph handed him a bowl of the soup, and Zuko brought it to his mouth, testing the temperature. When he found it wasn't scorching, he downed it in consecutive, greedy gulps.

Teo and the Duke stared at his soup-eating prowess, while the earthbending girl snickered in amusement. "Remember to take a moment to _breathe_ inbetween gulps, Zuko," she laughed.

He wiped his mouth on his arm, unfazed, and held the bowl out for more. "I'll remember that next time," he gushed breathlessly. Teo smiled and refilled his bowl.

From the far side of the clearing, two figures burst forth out of the brush. Sokka and Haru had returned from their hunt, and they were both in high spirits. Each of them carried the skinned carcasses of small animals over their shoulders.

"We got 'em!" Sokka crowed, pointing to the animals he carried. "Pickens, all ready for the pickin'!"

Teo looked confused. "What's a picken?"

"Chicken pig," Toph responded, ignoring Sokka's pathetic attempt at humor. "Where did you guys find them? They must have roamed off of someone's nearby farm or something."

"I don't know how they ended up here—all I know is that Fu Manchu and I—"

"_**Haru**_," the mustache-clad earthbender corrected him, with a growl.

"—hunted them—actually I did most of the hunting with my trusty boomerang—Fu Manchu did a lot of girly screaming and mustache twirling—but the bottom line is, we have brought home the meat!" Sokka did a little victory dance, still holding the pickens; and then posed in an attempt at a macho hunting stance, his fist raised, lowering his voice dramatically by three octaves. "_We have brought you meat, children. You will no longer go hungry, for we have hunted the meat!_"

Toph stuck her tongue out sarcastically in Sokka's direction. "Yeah, so you hunted a few harmless chicken pigs. Congratulations, Mr. Manly Man. What an accomplishment. What'd they do, try to peck you?" There was mischievous glee in her voice.

Sokka strode to the cooking pit, still talking in his low and manly voice. "You won't sound quite so saucy, young lady, when these pickens are sautéing over a low flame."

Sure enough, when the meat was sizzling and cooking over the open fire all six of them were crowded around it, breathing in the aroma. Teo and the Duke were watching it, mesmerized; Zuko kept his eyes closed. The torture was easier to bear that way.

Even Toph was near drooling. "So…when'd you say it'd be done again, O Manly One?"

Sokka tested a piece of breast meat and found it was done, as the juices ran clear. "Right about now. Everyone give me your plates!"

There were no words spoken for the precious first few moments as they ate; only the sounds of lips smacking, teeth chewing, and the pleasant sighs of hunger finally being sated. The afternoon sun was high in the sky, and with the warmth of it after their full meal, the group lounged in momentary luxury.

Sokka sat between Haru and Zuko, patting his belly contentedly.

"Zuko, you ever wear a mustache?"

Not fazed in the least by Sokka's question, Zuko shook his head. "Not many men in my family wear them. Plenty of Fire Nation nobles do, but not so much in the Royal Family."

Sokka looked at him skeptically, holding his chin, looking like he was envisioning Zuko with one. "Don't even think about it," the firebender told him, his tone warning.

"I was just thinking, with that armor you used to walk around in, and when you used to shave your head and leave that little ponytail—if you combined it with a mustache, now _that_ would be—"

"_No._"

"You know, Sokka," Haru started, still licking his fingers from the food, "_you_ could wear a mustache pretty well."

Sokka considered this. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You really think so?"

"Oh, yeah." The earthbender nodded. "Without question. You especially, have the coloring for it."

Sokka rubbed his chin even more. "Yeah, you know, I've always thought I might look good with the works—the full beard and chops, and stuff—but maybe I should start out small, just to see what it's like."

Zuko reclined on his elbows, and stretched his legs out before him on the grass. He blinked up at the bright sun above, listening to the manly conversation going on around him about meat, facial hair, and other such topics—and occasionally contributing to them. He closed his eyes as he did, and felt the rays soaking into his skin, heating his blood.

For the first time in several days—_maybe several months, maybe several years_—he felt at peace.

-o-

-o-

Katara returned to the campsite at nightfall. The sky was already dark, just after dusk. She had done a lot of solo thinking.

She looked around at the quiet, clean campsite, and the evidence of soup and meat having been cooked—and neatly stowed away, for travel. She smiled gently at Teo and the Duke asleep, realizing they'd had a good meal and were comfortable. She spied Toph and the other boys already curled up in their sleeping bags for the night, the camp's fire extinguished.

Aang had most likely returned to the camp hours before, and was curled up by Appa, lying close to the bison's fur. Katara felt her heart sink slightly with guilt.

She went to her own sleeping bag, intent on ignoring the persistent gnawing in her belly—but when she found it, there was a carefully wrapped package of something wrapped in leaves nestled on the blanket. Kneeling, she unwrapped it and opened it.

It was cooked meat, fragrant with its juices and flavor, even though long since cooled. Without hesitation she dug her fingers into it, eating ravenously. She'd underestimated just how hungry she really had been. As she finished eating, saving the remainder of it for the next day, she wondered who had been kind enough to prepare it for her.

With her appetite finally sated, Katara crawled into her bed and slowly surrendered to sleep.

-o-

-o-


	5. the sound of silence

**A/N**: Merry Christmas/ Happy Hannukah / Yuletide Greetings and Happy New Year to everyone! I wanted to have this chapter up sooner, but with the holidays and everything so busy, life just gets in the way. I'm also trying to keep this as 312-and-beyond-compliant as possible, although there are obvious deviations.

Enough babbling. Read on!

* * *

_Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something,  
and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent._

—The 14th Dalai Lama

* * *

-**chapter 5**-

**-the sound of silence-**

-o-

-o-

In the darkened receiving room of the illustrious Order of the White Lotus, the old gray-haired traveler knelt with reverence on the floor. The sound of tinkling chimes and running water could be heard not far away. He sat back on his heels, looking around in the dim light. He could barely make out the figures around him of the other members of the Order—they were enshrouded in shadows, each wearing white robes and white _oni_ masks.

"Brother," one of the figures intoned, "we have been awaiting your arrival for some time, now. You were unexpectedly late. What delayed you?"

The old man's gaze lowered in respect, but his voice held a hint of humor. "I apologize for my lateness. I was incarcerated in the Fire Nation by Princess Azula, and I had to plan my escape most carefully to coincide with the Day of Black Sun."

"Ah." The voice grunted an affirmation. "Welcome back into the fold, my Brother. We are glad to see you have freed yourself from the clutches of the Royal Family."

The traveler chuckled jovially. "As am I."

"We are putting certain events into motion as we speak. The White Lotus, the Mother Goddess, has begun to gather her armies for the retaliatory attack against the Fire Nation. But we have lost sight of the Avatar momentarily, and we are concerned in regard to his progression in learning all four forms of bending, and his mastery of the Avatar State."

"I am certain he will be able to complete his training by the time it is necessary," the old man responded confidently. "I have had the fortune to meet him, and I can assure you that despite his age, he is willing to uphold the tasks."

"And what of the young man you were traveling with for so long, whom we provided assistance for in regard to entering Ba Sing Se?"

A pause. "I do not know," the old man answered hesitantly. "When I left the Fire Nation, he was still there."

"Is he still loyal to Ozai?" another voice asked, a measure of concern apparent. "Has Roku's line truly become lost to us?"

"I do not know." The traveler bowed his head.

The figures in the room did not appear happy with the old traveler's response. "The White Lotus will not be pleased to hear of this," spoke the first voice. "She has routinely foretold that the descendant of Avatar Roku is one of several key elements in ensuring that balance and harmony will be restored to the world, after so long at war. But Sozin's Comet draws nearer. You are aware that the attack planned on the Day of Black Sun by the Avatar and his companions failed?"

"I am aware, yes." The traveler was solemn. "As for the White Lotus, I do not wish her to be displeased. But, I am afraid I have done all that I can to try to encourage him to choose a different path. There is only so much that is within my own power to change. The rest of it is something he has to do for himself."

The voice was persistent. "But there is still a possibility that he will choose the correct path of his own accord?"

Iroh—the former Fire Nation General, the once-feared and infamous Dragon of the West, and a Grand Master of the Order of the White Lotus—looked uncertain.

"If he can realize for himself that joining forces with the Avatar's group will enable him to finally choose his own destiny, he might," he answered. "If he does so, if he embraces humility and learns to control his emotions, he has a better chance of further developing his firebending skills to compete with his father and his sister." His face darkened.

"But unfortunately, relinquishing his pride—as well as his shame—is something that my nephew has never been very good at."

-o-

-o-

"_Blecchhhh! _This is absolute _crap!_"

Zuko's features suddenly sparked with rage. "What do you _mean,_ 'it's crap'?!"

Katara spat onto the ground as she threw the contents of the bowl of soup over her shoulder. She wiped her mouth with the back of her arm, distastefully. "That's got to be the most _disgusting_ soup I've ever tasted!"

Sokka looked in surprise at his sister, and then back down at his own bowl. "Really? I didn't think it was that ba—"

"Sokka, _shut it!_"

"—ah, okay, then. Shutting it." He bit his lip, rolling his blue eyes as he did. The younger members of the group turned back to Zuko with wide eyes, as the verbal volley continued.

"I spent all morning making this for the entire group, _including you!_" the Fire Prince yelled at her, angrily wielding the ladle. "The least you could do is say, 'thank you, Zuko,' " he mimicked, momentarily lapsing into falsetto, "or if you can't do that, just hold your tongue and _eat_ _it_ in appreciation!"

"There's no way I'm going to eat this!" she fired back. "What are you doing the cooking for, anyway? Cooking is _my_ responsibility! You're terrible at it!" The kids turned their heads from Zuko back to her, and then expectantly at him once more.

"_Excuse me_ for trying to help you out, and doing something _nice_ for you!" And back again.

She pointed an angry finger in his direction. "I don't _need_ your help! Stop waving that thing at me! Are you trying to _assault_ me with that soup ladle?!"

Toph elbowed Aang beside her, who was watching the exchange with something like apathy in his eyes. "Hey, Twinkle Toes," she muttered quietly, "are you going to just sit here and listen to this, or are you going to intervene and stop them from potentially killing each other?"

The young monk's shoulders drooped forlornly as he watched the argument continuing directly in front of him. "I tried to do that yesterday. I guess I didn't do a very good job of it, though. They've been fighting all day so far. It seems like they just want to have it out with each other. At least they haven't resorted to physical violence again."

His comment didn't seem to sit well with Toph, and she crossed her arms and frowned. "Well, _I've_ heard about enough of this."

Katara was still baiting Zuko. "You're impossible! I don't know how anyone can possibly get along with you. Trying to knock some sense into you is like talking to a brick wall!"

With that, a wall made of stone—and presumably brick—vaulted up from the earth in front of her, effectively separating them. Katara jumped back in surprise, and Zuko took a step backward on the other side of it.

"Well, maybe that's just who you should be talking to instead, Katara," Toph asserted, standing as she regarded them both. Aang looked up at the earthbending girl next to him, a mixture of astonishment and appreciation on his face. "I'm tired of listening to you two bicker and scream at each other every five minutes. If it's not about the food, it's about where we're going, or about Aang's firebending lessons, or about what happened in Ba Sing Se!" Her arms flew wildly. "What's done is done! What happened in Ba Sing Se _can't_ be undone, so you guys just need to _move on_. Seriously."

Katara frowned and hugged her arms to her chest. "That's easy for you to say, Toph. But you weren't there to see it happen with your own eyes." She paused, and belatedly realized what she'd said, and to whom. "I mean—you_ know_ what I mean."

"I already told you that I'm sorry," Zuko reiterated despondently, leaning over from the other side of the wall. "What more do I have to do?!"

Katara threw a stern finger at him. "Stay on your side!" He groaned and threw his arms up in exasperation, disappearing behind the wall again.

"It's not just Ba Sing Se," she went on, her anger refusing to abate. "It's also the fact that you followed us around the globe for so long, trying to capture Aang, putting us all in jeopardy because of your little 'quest' to restore your honor—and you even took my mother's necklace and tried to bribe me with it!"

"I didn't take it—I_ found it_." Zuko's growl was menacing, even from the opposite side of the wall. "It was on that naval ship that you freed the earthbending prisoners from!"

Both Haru and Katara looked shocked; they both recalled the adventure near Haru's home village where they had freed his father, who was prisoner aboard a Fire Nation coal-mining ship.

"Well—you could have just given it right back!" she shouted, only dimly aware of how ridiculous her suggestion would have been at the time.

"_Enough_," roared Toph, stamping her foot on the earth, and the entire campsite trembled in response to her power. She pointed to the opposite end of the clearing. "Katara, if you can't stop provoking him, then you have to separate yourself from him." She pointed to the other end. "Zuko, if you can't ignore what she says to you, then you need to keep your own distance, as well." The Fire Prince lowered his head at her words, obviously frustrated.

Katara didn't give up so easily. "Toph, you don't know what I've—"

The blind earthbender suddenly put her arms up, shushing everyone in a loud hiss. "_Sshhhh_. Everybody shut up! You hear that?"

Everyone was silent and absolutely still. Finally, after a moment, Katara asked in a slightly fearful whisper: "Hear what? I don't hear anything."

Toph folded her arms over her chest and gave a smug smile. "_Exactly._"

Katara put her hands on her hips, and Haru stepped forward, taking the aggravated waterbender's arm. "Come on, Katara," he said gently, and she let herself be led away, even as she lingered to deliver one last menacing glare to the wall separating her from the firebender. "Let's go for a bit of a walk. I found this really nice stream in the forest that I think you'd like…"

Katara made one last-ditch effort to take a stand against the Fire Prince. "Just remember, Zuko," she warned dangerously, "I've got my eye on you."

Aang watched as Haru guided her away with hushed conversation, his gray eyes following their movements until they were gone from view.

"Well, at last we got a few moments of peace and quiet, after all." Toph patted the Avatar's shoulder gently as she passed by him, and he rested his chin against his knees once more, looking down at the grass.

-o-

-o-

"Have you seen Aang?"

Teo and the Duke both looked up from the task they were absorbed in, to see Zuko standing over them. Teo shaded his eyes from the high afternoon sun. "Nope. Sorry."

Zuko sighed and folded his arms across his chest, looking out toward the forest. "I'm supposed to teach him more firebending today, and I haven't been able to find him anywhere for the past hour." He turned back to the two younger boys, who'd resumed their work. "Well, if you see him, would you tell him I'm looking for him?" he asked them politely.

"Sure thing." The Duke resumed banging happily away with a hammer on a metal fixing.

Out of curiosity, Zuko looked closer. "What exactly are you guys doing?"

Teo gazed up once more. "The Duke is helping me fix part of my glider that attaches to my wheelchair," he answered happily as he looked it over. "When we're finished with it, it should be airborne-ready."

Zuko's jaw dropped. "You mean—you can fly with that thing? In the air?"

The younger boys laughed. "Oh, yeah!" Teo responded. "My dad is a mechanist, and he built this specifically for me to fly with." He beamed. "It's just slightly out of commission at the moment—we have one or two parts that need adjusting—but once we're done, it'll work perfectly!" His smile faded slightly. "Hey, when you're done training with Aang, would you like to help us put the finishing touches on it?"

His single eyebrow lifted in surprise, but Zuko recovered quickly. "Yeah. I'd like that." He managed some semblance of a smile. "I'll come and find you, later. Don't take off until I've had a chance to look at it, okay?"

Both boys nodded, grinning, as they dove back into their work.

Zuko knew Toph and Sokka were somewhere doing some sort of errand. That left only Haru and Katara unaccounted for, and his guess was that the earthbender was still trying to calm her down from her earlier tirade.

_What a temper_. It was a wonder that she managed to keep the group together as successfully as she did.

_It certainly doesn't help that she has it out for me._

He moved deeper into the forest, still searching for the young airbender. He was just about to call out Aang's name when the monk in question came crashing through the brush with a blast of wind, landing on the ground almost directly in front of him.

Zuko blinked. "Aang?"

Aang recovered, panting slightly. He got to his feet, brushing himself off. "Uh…yeah." He was about to speak again, when both of them heard Katara and Haru approaching from the direction Aang had materialized from. Zuko, without anything explained to him, instantly understood.

"Hide," Aang urged, and they both sheltered themselves in the trees as the earthbender and the waterbender passed by.

Katara was speaking to him. "I really appreciate you distracting me for a while, Haru," she said gently, giving him a small smile. "I was pretty upset earlier. But it was nice to relive some memories of our escape from that coal-mining ship." Haru smiled vapidly in response, not really listening; behind her back, unseen by Katara, he was busily trying to figure out the best way to put his arm about her shoulders. After several awkward and unsuccessful attempts, he finally gave up and laced his hands behind him.

They walked on, out of earshot, and Zuko saw the young monk's expression crumble as he watched them together. His eyes met the firebender's, and Aang hurriedly looked away.

The Fire Prince looked at him for a long moment. "You were following them?" he asked, with a trace of gentleness.

Aang ducked his head, and Zuko crossed his arms over his chest in response. "N-not really." He suddenly perked up, and like a whirlwind, enthusiastically changed the subject. "So, ahhh, did you want to do some firebending? I'm really excited to try some new stances, and I think I'm ready for the footwork—and I really want to try the—"

Zuko stopped him with his raised palms. "Okay, okay. Let's go train."

-o-

-o-

They were working through the stances, Zuko showing him the correct posture to prevent an attacker from 'breaking the root', when Aang stopped and released his pose. He sat down on the ground lotus-style, and Zuko broke his own stance, lowering his arms to watch him expectantly.

"Zuko, can I ask you something?" Aang asked.

The firebender nodded. "What is it?"

"Well….let's say there was this something that you really, _really_ wanted. You wanted it because it…it made you happy…and you really, really cared about it, a lot. It was really important to you. And you didn't want to let it go." A short nod, in response.

"But…in order to keep this thing that you wanted, you had to _ignore_ something else that you knew you had to do, something that was really, _really_ important to almost everyone else, and that you know is the right thing to do. It's…a responsibility," he went on, and something in Zuko's eyes changed. "And you can't have both things; it's only one or the other."

He looked at Zuko. "What would you do? Which one would you choose?"

Zuko sat down on the ground opposite him, crossing his legs, his head bowed in thought.

"Sometimes…we have to make difficult decisions like that," he spoke at length, feeling the Avatar's wide, questioning gray eyes on him. "I had to make a decision to leave my family, my title, and my crown behind, when I chose to follow you and teach you firebending.

"When I was young, my father's affection meant everything to me. After my mother's disappearance, I tried to do everything I could to please him, even though it seemed like nothing worked and he wanted nothing to do with me. I thought if I could capture the Avatar and win his respect, that I'd be happy just to have him love me again." Aang's eyes widened at his confession, and Zuko forced himself to go on.

"But when I saw firsthand what my father's policies have done to the people in the Earth Kingdom, and when I realized that my forefathers had done the same—even worse—to the Water Tribe people, and the Air Nomads…" He paused, shaking his head. "I began to realize that it didn't have to be that way…that I didn't have to do those things to people…that there was another path open to me. My uncle made me see it. He made me aware that I had the power within me to change, to do the right thing…and to see that the thing I wanted so badly—my father's love—wasn't really what I wanted, after all."

"But," Aang started, frowning, "what if you _know_ that you still _really want_ that one thing, even after all this time?"

Zuko stared at him blankly. "This isn't about a 'thing', is it?" he asked, his voice knowing.

The young monk's face froze in a grimace. "What? O-of course it is!"

When he realized Zuko wasn't buying it, he lowered his head. "Well…honestly…no. It's…more serious than that.

"You see…the Guru told me that my seventh chakra is blocked. In order to master the Avatar State, which is the only way I'll be able to defeat Ozai…I have to let go of someone I care about. Someone I _love_." Zuko didn't need to ask who it was; it was already painfully apparent to him.

Aang raised his head again to meet the firebender's eyes. "And…I just don't know if I can do it. But, at the same time…I don't even think she feels the same way about me."

Zuko held his gaze. "How do you know how she feels? Have you asked her about it?"

"Yeah. I did." The boy's shoulders slumped. "I don't know what to do."

His confusion and heartache were so genuine, that Zuko felt compelled to try to help him.

"I can't presume to tell you what to do. You know what needs to be done, and what you need to be capable of." Aang's expression was heavy with guilt. "But whatever you do—make sure that when you do it, that you're being true to yourself. You, as Aang, the Avatar. If you're not, you'll never be at peace with your decision."

Aang nodded forlornly.

"I had to give up someone as well," the Fire Prince added, to Aang's surprise, "someone I cared about, and whom I knew cared about me. I knew that she wouldn't feel the same as I did about what needed to be done. I knew her destiny didn't lie along the same path that mine did." He ducked his head. "So I let her go."

"Were you sad?" the airbender asked gently, and the innocent question reverberated in Zuko's head. _Were you sad? Did you feel bad for what you did to Mai? Do you feel as though you should be punished, for breaking her heart? _

He thought of the portrait of them on her wall, of her distraught glances after his bouts of unresponsiveness…of the guilt he felt as he left the folded parchment of paper—a note for her—on her bed, before he left. "Yes," he answered solemnly.

_Did you wonder if it could have ended up differently?_

"And no," he continued, to Aang's surprise. "I've known since we were kids that she's always been loyal to my sister…and she always will be. I just forgot it, for a little while."

Aang seemed to absorb his answers thoughtfully. "I think you're right, Zuko. Even if there's something that I really want…I have to remember who I am, and I have to remember to be true to myself." He looked back up at the Fire Prince, and Zuko could swear from looking into the gray depths that the boy had spontaneously aged right before his eyes. "I'm the Avatar. I ignored my responsibility once…I can't do that anymore."

The young monk looked resigned and at the same time, almost relieved. From where he sat next to the firebender, he turned to regard him formally, bowing at the waist and holding his palm to his fist in the highest gesture of respect. "Thank you…_Sifu_ Zuko." When he straightened, Zuko saw a newfound strength.

Zuko bowed with the same gesture in return. "You're welcome."

"And even though you've had to give up on your family," Aang went on, "we'll search as hard as we can for your uncle…so you won't feel like you're totally alone." His smile was reassuring, and Zuko felt startled with the sudden change in direction of the conversation. Sometimes talking to Aang was like standing in a cyclone—it was hard to tell which way the wind would pull him.

But he returned the smile just as warmly, thinking of Iroh. "And hopefully when we find my uncle, we'll find your other missing airbenders, as well…so you won't be totally alone, either."

He was rewarded with another smile from the Avatar, this time wistful and nostalgic; and both boys sat together for several more moments in comfortable and amiable silence.

"I feel as though I'm finally starting to understand you, Zuko," Aang said.

"Same here."

-o-

-o-

When he returned to camp, Aang having gone off to help Sokka and Haru with organizing the supplies into Appa's harness, Zuko noted that both Teo and the Duke were still working on the glider. Teo waved him over happily, and Zuko felt the corners of his mouth quirking upward. "How does it look?" he asked, when he was close enough.

Teo beamed. "I think it's almost done. There's just this one part still that needs to be bent slightly, but the Duke's been working on it for a while and it still doesn't look right. Take a look." He showed a piece of metal hinge that connected the glider's wingspan, and allowed for the quick release of wind-buoying fabric to control turns. He demonstrated with his hands. "We need to bend it slightly in _this_ direction."

The Duke frowned, and crossed his arms. "It's not my fault! The stupid metal won't _budge!_"

"It's okay, Duke," Teo grinned optimistically. "I know you tried your best. It's just a stubborn piece of metal, that's all."

The Duke gave a quiet grumble. "It's '_the_' Duke..."

Zuko held his chin as he examined it. "I think I can help with it. I can heat the metal with firebending, and then we can knock it into place. But first we need to elevate the whole thing and take a better look at the wing, seeing how it expands, to make sure that's really the direction you want that metal to bend in."

Teo cocked his head. "How are we going to do that? The whole thing's kind of heavy."

The firebender looked around the immediate area. He took note of the trees surrounding them, as well as lengths of reed fiber rope on the ground nearby.

"I have an idea."

Minutes later, he was collecting the length of rope, sitting cross-legged on the ground as he knotted it securely. "We're going to make a pulley system here, using this tree to hoist the glider up. All I have to do is make some connecting knots in the rope to hold it securely, and we're set."

Teo wheeled himself up and watched his activity with interest, as Zuko wrapped the corded rope over and over in his hands. "Wow. You sure know what you're doing with the rope knots. Where'd you learn that?"

Zuko smiled to himself. "I spent three years on a Fire Nation naval vessel at sea. Sailors depend on strong knotted rope for a lot of things aboard a ship." He held up the length of rope, demonstrating a secure-looking knot. "This is actually called a Fisherman's knot. You make it like this." He folded the rope over again, demonstrating, and both Teo and the Duke eyed it closely.

The Fire Prince got to his feet, still holding the knotted rope. "Now we'll tie it around the tree, to start with, and then attach it to different parts of the glider, so that it will expand the wingspan and we can see where—" He turned toward the largest tree behind him and jumped suddenly, shouting in mid-sentence in surprise. "_Ah!_"

Toph stood before him, leaning casually against the tree. "What's shakin', Sparky?"

Zuko slapped his forehead. "Nothing…you just startled me. Have you been standing here the whole time? What are you doing?"

She shrugged daintily, giving a mysterious little grin. "Just observing…and listening."

He was just starting to show Teo and the Duke his method for securing the pulley support around the base of the tree, when he heard another female voice behind him, snide and dripping with sarcasm. This time it wasn't Toph.

"Planning on tying someone up and getting them to rat out their friends, are we?"

He turned, slowly, to meet the waterbender's suspicious blue eyes. The Duke spoke up, "Hey, Katara. Zuko's helping us make a _pulley_."

"Is that so." She crossed her arms about her chest, putting a finger to her chin in an expression of mock curiosity. "Wow, I could have sworn he told me the same thing, months ago—right before he _roped me to a tree_ and tried to _bribe_ me." The toe of her tanned leather boot tapped suggestively in warning.

Zuko momentarily found it difficult to swallow. "I'm just helping Teo fix his glider," he answered, sternly.

Inexplicably, on his other side, Toph was covertly smiling. "Tell us again, Katara, exactly _what_ he did to you? You mentioned it before, but I wasn't clear on the fine points."

Katara seemed to relish an opportunity to launch into righteous description of the event in vivid detail, and Zuko inwardly grimaced. "Okay. I was…you know…minding my own business, practicing with a waterbending scroll—and then out of nowhere, Zuko and some pirate guys appear, and Zuko catches my arms in front of me, so that I can't bend to defend myself. _Then_ he holds me against the tree, pinning my wrists behind it, while he helps his little Fire Nation cohort buddies tie the knots around my wrists. Talk about being humiliated and afraid for my life, all at the same time!" She scoffed, and Toph's ears perked up attentively, feet firmly on the ground. "I'd give anything not to have to experience _that_ again."

Zuko's eyes were narrowed, as he looked at her with something like bewilderment. "You weren't afraid for your life. I never threatened you. You knew I wasn't going to harm you that night."

"I didn't know _what_ you were going to do to me," she corrected him, stern. "For all I knew, you were going to do…_terrible_ things to me to make me talk, and reveal where Aang was. I felt totally helpless, and at your mercy…and I _hated_ it."

Again, Toph's ears and feet picked up on Katara's words; and this time, the blind earthbending girl gave a quick snort of laughter. "Oh, _really?_"

Katara whirled on her defensively with a glare. "Exactly _what_ is funny about that?"

Toph smirked. "Oh, don't worry about it, Madame Fussybritches…as long as I'm here, there won't be any more _rope and tree excursions_ between you and Mister Crankypants over here, from now on…" she paused, a devilish gleam hovering about her face, "…unless, that is, you decide that you actually _want one_."

As the group watched, Katara's hands curled into fists at her sides. Her expression slowly went from dark and stormy, to suddenly slightly pale—and then her face turned a deep scarlet red. She looked shocked and furious and embarrassed all at once. She turned away on her heel and stomped off without another word.

The boys were looking at the still-snickering earthbending girl in confusion. "I don't get it," Zuko said, turning to Toph. "What was that all about?"

She chuckled gleefully and crossed her arms as she leaned once more against the tree. "Nothing…but you'll find out eventually, I think."

"No, I mean my nickname," Zuko responded crossly. " 'Mister Crankypants'. What happened to 'Sparky'? I think that suits me better!"

Toph's face fell in surprise. She smacked her palm against her forehead in a very Sokka-like manner, as the boys nonchalantly continued their work on the glider.

-o-

-o-

In the Fire Nation's capital, Azula marched directly into Mai's family home. The servants and sentries guarding the noblewoman's house trembled and scattered before her in terror. It was highly unusual for any member of the Royal Family besides Prince Zuko to show up in the home, especially the Crown Princess Azula—and especially uninvited—but they were far too fearful to stop her.

Azula stormed up the stairway to Mai's designated wing of the decadent mansion, and using her blue firebending, kicked in the door of the girl's room quite easily. Mai was sitting on the edge of her bed, a vacant expression on her face, and didn't even look up as the bellowing princess entered her room by force.

"_Mai_," Azula growled furiously, "_where have you been?_ I've been summoning you for the past _two days_, and you haven't been responding to my messages or requests at all! _What have you been doing?!_"

Mai sat, unresponsive. It only made Azula angrier. "_**Well?!**_"

The melancholy girl finally raised her head to meet the gaze of the irate princess, calmly and unruffled. "I'm here, Azula," she intoned.

Azula folded her arms. "My father, Fire Lord Ozai, is very upset by the revelation that the Avatar is still alive. Thanks to my idiot brother, now he knows that it was _me_ who had neglected to finish him off, not Zuko." She seethed with anger. "Needless to say, he is very irritated with me right now. And I _can't have that_."

"You're his only heir," Mai said, pointedly. "He won't take that away from you, especially now that Zuko's gone." She said the last words almost in a whisper, and Azula sneered.

"Do you think _that_ matters, at all? I was Father's favorite to begin with. But just because Zu-zu's out of the picture doesn't mean he wouldn't deny me my crown if it came to it. I _need_ to make absolutely certain that the Avatar is truly dead this time. And I need _you_ to help me do it."

Mai stared at her for a long moment, before lowering her head. "What is it that you wish me to do?"

The princess smirked; subservience always pleased her. "I know your parents are still in Omashu. I need you and Ty Lee to go and join them there, for now. Await my further orders; but be prepared to carry out whatever tasks that I deem necessary." Mai gave a short nod, and Azula's expression hardened further. "And Mai. I need to know that you will be able to do what needs to be done…when the time comes to strike. Am I understood?"

A bare whisper in the room. "Yes, Azula."

With that, the Fire Princess stalked out of the bedroom. Mai raised her head once more to watch her depart, before lowering it again to look at the piece of parchment that she had folded up in her hands. She unfolded it once more and re-read it.

Upon finishing she stared off into space, forlorn and silent.

-o-

-o-


	6. cohesive fluidity

**A/N**: I apologize profusely for the huuuuge delay in updating. It won't happen again. I am determined to finish this!

Thanks once more for the reviews and feedback. _Slight_ spoilers for ep 313, the Firebending Masters, here, but nothing major; I tried to redo the theme of that episode through a different angle. Hope you guys continue to enjoy the story. Read on!

* * *

_Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.  
Conquer the miser with generosity.  
Conquer the liar with truth._  
_Conquer the angry man with love._

_  
_—The Dhammapada

* * *

-**chapter 6**-

**-cohesive fluidity-**

-o-

-o-

It was the next evening, after their daily travel aboard Appa as the group set up camp, when Katara noticed it. With the others momentarily out of earshot—unpacking and setting up supplies—she decided to pull him aside and ask him. "Sokka, is that…what _is_ that, on your face?"

He put his fingers to the sparse hair above his upper lip, protectively. "_What?_"

She started to giggle. "It's a _mustache?_ What made you decide you finally wanted to grow facial hair? Don't tell me Haru's hairy ways have finally rubbed off on you."

Sokka frowned in mock annoyance. "So what if they did? I think it'll make me look older, and more sophisticated."

She rolled her eyes. "We don't _need_ any older guys in the group. We already have Haru, and now we have _Zuko_ acting paternal, of all things, and trying to do stuff like cooking, and…being chummy with people." She mocked his voice, lowering hers a few octaves and making it comically scratchy and raspy. " '_Here, Teo, let me help you out with that glider, young man._'" She sputtered with derisive laughter. "I mean—come _on_. Is he serious?"

Her brother's face fell solemn. "Yeah…about that, Katara," he started, and she dropped her arms in surprise.

"What?"

"You know that he's _really_ trying hard to acclimate himself to the group…and your attitude toward him isn't helping," he replied sternly, and her mouth dropped open in an attempt to defend herself. He held up a hand to stop her. "—Before you start talking, hear me out and let me finish.

"You're my sister, and _I love you_. But you need to knock this shit off. I know about your experiences with him, and how much of a grudge you're capable of holding. But he's _not a_ _bad guy_ anymore, Katara, and you need to accept it. You can't keep making him the scapegoat for your anger. You have to stop treating him like a criminal when he hasn't done anything wrong, and he's trying his best to fit in."

She too had adopted a serious expression, although hers leaned more towards hurt. "Sokka, how do you know he isn't going to slip up and disappoint us again? How do I know for certain that he's changed? When I was in the crystal catacombs under Ba Sing Se, I saw a side of him that I never thought I'd see from him, ever. I _truly_ believed his words back then. But he turned around right after that and betrayed both Aang and myself." Her eyes lowered. "Aang has always been more trusting, and he has his own reasons for taking Zuko's words at face value. But _I'm_ just afraid that he's going to have another moment of weakness again…and next time, I won't have any water from the Spirit Oasis left to save Aang's life."

"So keep your eye on him carefully, if you have to. But in the meantime, don't antagonize him. Don't make it any harder than it already is, for him." Sokka seemed genuinely concerned about the Fire Prince's welfare, and Katara was beyond surprised.

"What's made you change your mind so quickly?" she asked curiously, before reminding him. "You used to be really skeptical of him too. You used to call him the 'angry jerk'."

"He still _is_ a jerk. Now I just call him 'Jerkbender.'" He shrugged and looked away, and Katara thought he obviously hadn't ruminated on the subject too deeply. "I guess…I can identify with him or something, I don't know. I mean, I think we—you and I—were forced to grow up very quickly after Mom died, and Dad went off to war…and I think in a lot of ways, Zuko's experience has been pretty similar." He looked at his sister, whose expression changed slightly at his words. "Except the obvious difference being that you and I have each other, and both his sister and his father are psychopaths who want to kill him."

Then he gave her a goofy grin; and for a flashing second, Katara was suddenly and painfully reminded of Hakoda. "I'm so glad you're not a psychopath who wants to kill me."

She pulled him into a hug even as he protested, and she held onto him tightly, looking over his shoulder so he couldn't see her eyes and the sudden emotion that had welled up within them. "I'm sorry for yelling at you yesterday," she whispered, and his arms came around her in return, no longer reluctant. "I haven't been a very good sister—I haven't been very good to _anybody_ the last few days. I'm going to make up for it, I promise you."

Sokka hugged her close. He smiled over her shoulder. "I know you will. _That's_ the little sister I grew up with."

Katara sniffled, finally pulling away. "How do you do it?" she asked him, her eyes still filled with emotion. "It seems so easy for you, sometimes. How do you just put your feelings and your anger _aside_ and out of the way, like they're something you can just step over—and not think about what's happened to Dad, and the other members of the Southern Water Tribe, and even _Suki_—"

At the last word, her brother stopped her in mid-speech and turned away. She saw right before that his eyes had suddenly gone cold. "Let's not…talk about that right now," he answered uneasily, and Katara knew her words had bit deeper than intended.

"Why—"

"I don't always profess to have a grip on them, either." Sokka's face was now stern and serious. "At the Fire Nation capital, during the Eclipse, I let Azula bait me with the idea of Suki's capture, and we lost our chance to kill the Fire Lord and end this entire thing." He looked at his sister once more. "I don't plan on ever losing control over my emotions like that, again, not for anything. Zuko is here to help us. And I'm not going to allow any residual personal feelings to get in the way of that."

She ducked her head, choosing her words carefully. "I understand you don't want to lose yourself to them. But…Sokka, don't push your feelings away too far. If you lose them completely, you'll lose sight of the very people you care so much about." She put a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave him a gentle, serene smile. "Our emotions don't make us weak. They remind us of who we're fighting for."

"I know." He nodded and patted her hand at his shoulder affectionately, and Katara could see it wasn't just placating, brotherly agreement; he _did_ know. "Just…do me a favor, will you?"

"What's that?"

"Try not to bait the angry jerkbender into any emotional fits of rage, okay, sis?"

She thwacked his ear with her fingers and went to set up her bedroll.

-o-

-o-

Close to midday, the Fire Prince realized to his chagrin that the Avatar was hopped up on the jasmine-green tea he'd brewed for both of them earlier.

Aang's chattering seemed sped-up, as if he were a hog-monkey being chased by rabid wolfbats. In his hands, he played with small plumes of flame, bouncing them back and forth between his hands and making shapes. "Hey, Zuko. How will I know how to find the airbenders near Omashu, if they're in hiding? We airbenders are pretty good at hiding. We can almost be invisible if we wanted to! But what if I can't find them? What should I do? Should I start sending out messenger hawks, or smoke signals, or—"

"Will you _knock it off_ for _one minute_, so I can think clearly?" Zuko raked his hand through his hair in mild annoyance, before directing his ire at the twelve-year-old monk once more. "And _stop making fire puppets!_ You're supposed to be working on training moves!"

Aang froze obediently and sat down on the ground, next to the still-warm teapot. "Whatever you say, Sifu Hotman!"

"I _told you_ to stop calling me that."

Aang shrugged. "But I don't know what else to call you."

Zuko sighed. "Just…Zuko, will be fine."

The young monk nodded, looking up at him with rapt attention—and something else that Zuko suspected bordered on adulation. He slowly felt the annoyance leaching from him upon recognizing it. It was the same look he remembered as a boy bestowing on his own older cousin, Lu Ten, watching with proud admiration as Iroh's son had donned his armor and went off to war, never to return. He calmed himself before he spoke again.

"Today," he said determinably to his pupil, standing over the boy with his arms folded across his chest, "I'm going to teach you how to breathe fire."

Aang's face lit up once more, his gray eyes gleaming with excitement. "I did this once in a dream where I was in the Avatar State," the young monk said, recalling the strange dream he'd experienced immediately after the Fire Nation's defeat at the North Pole. "But I've never been able to do it normally. I guess I've never really tried before, though, either."

"The Breath of Fire was originally taught to the first firebenders by the dragons," Zuko went on. "The ancestral firebenders, the Sun Warriors, watched the dragons exhale fire and learned how to mimic it by having the dragons impart to them the wisdom of their ancient secrets."

"The dragons taught the first firebenders? What happened to the dragons?"

"They're gone." Zuko flinched, just barely, before continuing. "The Breath of Fire can be used by those who have successfully mastered the use of their breath in an attack. Since you're inherently an airbender, I don't think you should have any problem with this. You just need to know the right way to ignite it."

Aang blinked. "And how do I do that?"

"Usually with your own body heat…but you can make use of something externally hot, as well. For example," Zuko leaned down to pick up his teacup, "my Uncle taught me that a cup of hot tea gives you more than sufficient heat." He sipped from the cup, nearly draining it, and swallowed; then let his head fall backwards as he took a deep breath. He exhaled through his mouth, a bright plume of flame sparking to life from his lips before he closed them again and extinguished it.

"Wowwww!" Aang gasped excitedly. "Let me try!"

The young airbender quickly downed a cup of the mildly hot tea, giving a slight grimace as he did. Before Zuko could protest Aang leapt to his feet and opened his mouth wide, his fists raised in the air. But instead of fire, from his mouth erupted a huge, ear-splitting belch. Zuko wrinkled his nose slightly in distaste, lips quirked in amusement.

Aang was flummoxed. He sat back down with a whoosh of wind, defeated. "I don't get it. What'd I do?"

"It's not what you did; it's what you _didn't_ do. You didn't channel any frustration into it." Zuko stepped forward again, cup in hand.

"I have to be _frustrated_ to breathe fire?" the Avatar asked unbelievably, eyes bulging.

Zuko shook his head. "It's not required…but it helps," he admitted. He took another swig of hot tea, and let it course down his throat before tipping his head back and blowing another mouthful of flame high into the air.

Aang looked at him, studying him curiously. "So….what frustrates _you_, Zuko?"

He was opening his mouth to reply just as Katara appeared at the edge of the clearing; Zuko's lips snapped shut, and both boys looked over in surprise at her entrance. She approached them cautiously, gracefully taking a seat on the leaf-covered forest floor at a comfortable distance away.

"Lots of things," Zuko finished, now sufficiently distracted. Aang looked from the waterbender to him and back again, cocking his head.

"Don't mind me, I just want to watch the lesson for today," she offered humbly, realizing their eyes were on her. "I won't disturb either of you, I promise." She drew her knees to her chest and folded her arms over them protectively.

Zuko's discomfort was palpable. Even Aang seemed to notice it. "Uhh, so…should I try it again? The Breath of Fire?" the young monk inquired uncertainly, but suddenly the Fire Prince was shaking his head.

"No. Let's try something else for now." He took a few steps back and let his body slide into firebending posture, feet apart, arms at the ready. "Let's do a bit of sparring." He saw Katara's eye twitching in surprise out of the corner of his own, and felt a vague sense of smug satisfaction come briefly over him.

"You mean like an _Agni Kai_?" Aang asked excitedly with an ear-splitting grin, and leapt to his feet with a gust of wind.

"Yeah, kinda like that." Zuko moved stealthily to the side like a panther, never breaking his stance. Aang took up his own pose and readied himself to fight.

Katara was cringing as she meekly raised her hand. "Hey, uh…wait," she offered as the boys faced off with one another, "but do you think this is really a good ide—"

Zuko charged.

He bolted forward, striking fiery punches into the air before him with his fists, as Aang gracefully leapt—buoyant on the air—and ducked out of the way of the blows. Zuko adjusted his aim accordingly and turned the flame in his hands into a whip, the air around it sizzling and cracking, barely missing the young monk as he darted and dodged.

Now on her feet in the clearing, Katara was visibly discomfited, her voice raised as she winced at each burst of fire. "I don't think this is—is this _really_ necessary? Can't you practice without fighting each other?"

Zuko ignored her complaints, instead directing his words—as well as another fire whip—at Aang. "Quit being evasive, and _fight me!_"

"I'm not being evasive!" came the panicked answer, breathless with effort. "You just…have bad aim!"

Katara was still pleading, her hands going from her hips to spread in supplication before her. "Come on, you guys—you don't need to practice this way. You can just do the forms. Stop!" Her hands fisted at her sides. "Zuko—_stoppit!_"

Finally Aang leapt toward him, simultaneously exhaling and throwing a solid punch of flame, aiming directly at Zuko's back leg. It wouldn't have disrupted his stance normally, but distracted as the firebender was by Katara's intrusion, the move ended up breaking his root. Zuko fell backwards onto the dirt of the forest floor, without enough time to catch himself. Aang pounced and stood over him, his fist barely touching the Prince's scar.

"_Yield!_"

Zuko panted on the ground. "I yield." He looked briefly over at Katara, whose tantrums had finally stilled, and was now looking at him with her hands at her hips.

"Good," she punctuated irritably. "It's about time you guys stopped this nonsense. There's no reason why you two can't practice without it getting so violent." She turned on her heel to leave the clearing. "I'm going to go clean up for lunch."

As soon as she was out of earshot, Zuko got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Actually," he remarked, a grin quirking the corners of his lips, "now I feel more like a rematch."

Aang grinned in return, and took up his stance.

-o-

-o-

"Bad news, you guys," Sokka announced later that afternoon. "We're closer to Omashu—excuse me, _New Ozai," _he inserted finger quotes, "—than before, and we'll be coming up on the Cave of the Two Lovers after another day's travel."

Toph hooted appreciatively. "And _why_ is that bad news?"

"The _obvious problem_, though," he went on, shooting her a mock-disapproving look, "is that we need to replenish our food stocks, like right now. There's a town not far from here—"

"—Again, not seeing the problem here?" Toph inserted.

"—but it's overrun by the _Fie-uhr Nay-tion_," he enunciated carefully, for the earthbender's benefit. "And after the Day of Black Sun, and our failure at the Fire Nation capital, you'd better believe they'll be on the watch for us." He smacked his palm with his fist, resolute. "You can bet the soldiers are going to be looking for the Avatar and his group. And we're a pretty easy bunch to spot in a crowd."

Out of the corner of his eye, Zuko spied Aang lowering his head in shame. Haru spoke up, "So how are we going to infiltrate the town then, to get some money and food? What are we going to do, wear costumes and disguise ourselves?" He smirked at his own sarcasm.

Sokka pointed his finger at him as if he'd won a prize. "_Precisely!_" Haru's mouth dropped open.

"There's a traveling circus coming through the town, as we speak. We can disguise ourselves as performers, and infiltrate the village that way. We can get payment for a day's performances, _and_ at the same time we'll be in costumes, so no one will know who we are!"

"Circus performers?" Teo asked, his eyes lighting up. "That's a great idea!"

The Duke, not quite as convinced of the master plan, looked disconcerted. "But…what are we going to do, in a circus?"

"Well, for one, I decided that _I'll_ be the Ringmaster," Sokka volunteered, puffing up his chest. "I'll help organize this entire thing—give everyone their tasks, and work a little persuasion on the circus owners to get them to allow us to do a day's work." He waved his hand nonchalantly. "Besides, I'm kinda the unofficial leader of the group anyway, being one of the oldest, so it makes sense."

Zuko cleared his throat noisily. Haru frowned and launched into a rant. "One of the _three _oldest," the earthbender reminded Sokka in a biting tone. "And what makes you think that _you_ should be the Ringmaster, Sokka? Zuko is technically the oldest one here, and most of the circuses roaming around the Earth Kingdom are run by Fire Nation citizens, anyway. I personally think _I_ should be the Ringmaster; I've been to some of these performances before, and I remember how the Ringmaster always has this big, bushy mustache—and let me just say right now, _that _sorry attempt at facial hair you're trying to grow out just doesn't cut it..."

"Aaaaand, I got that covered, Fu Manchu." From behind his back, Sokka whipped out the fake beard he'd used as a disguise in the Fire Nation, and attached it to his face. "Too bad for you, _beard trumps mustache_." The earthbender grumbled and fell silent, as the other members of the group snickered at the reappearance of Wang Fire's infamous facial hair.

Sokka consulted a written list. "Now for starters, we need some tricksters and magicians. I know the majority of us are benders, here—which is yet another reason why _I_ need to be the supervisor, and you guys need to be the ones who make the magic happen. No one will know you guys are actually using your…_stuff_," here he wiggled his hands in the midst of his speech, "they'll just think you're seasoned circus performers." He wagged a finger. "Now, don't overdo it. We don't want the tricks to look _too_ fantastic, and arouse any suspicion about bending. But we still need you to be convincing."

Aang was waving his hands excitedly and practically bouncing out of his skin. "Oooh! Ooooh! Pick me! Pick me!"

"Earthbenders," he asserted, catching Haru and Toph's attentions, "you guys should be the bulk of the party tricks. We need someone to do juggling, strength tricks with big amazing boulders and rocks; that sort of thing."

Toph cracked her knuckles. "I can do some heavy lifting, if it's required," she replied proudly.

Sokka clapped his hands with excitement. "The World's Strongest Woman! Perfect!" He turned. "Haru? How about you?"

"I can do juggling, as long as the items are made out of stone and clay," he offered, stroking his facial hair thoughtfully. "Shouldn't be too hard to keep them in the air."

Aang was still wiggling, popping up at random in the audience. "Hey, over here! Pick me!" Sokka pointedly ignored him, and moved on.

"Now, we're gonna need some clowns, of course. Every circus has clowns. You guys could do a variety of stuff and basically run—or ride—around looking cute. Teo and The Duke, I think you guys should have that covered."

Teo brightened, but the Duke was rubbing the back of his head uncertainly. "I dunno, Sokka…I've never had any experience being a clown, before…"

"Can you sing any songs?" Headshake. "Can you do somersaults?" Another headshake. "Show me your cutest clown's face."

The Duke removed his helmet, smoothed down his unruly dark hair, and forced a saccharine, toothy grin. Sokka paused.

"…Okay. With a little facepaint you'll be fine. Next…"

"COME ON!! PICK ME!" Aang was now practically in his face.

Sokka lowered his list in resignation, his eyes rolling in annoyance. Katara wasn't entirely sure any longer whether he was pretending or not. "_Okay_, Aang. We're going out of order, and _I'm_ supposed to be Ringmaster, but—whatever." He sighed impatiently before adopting an inquisitive pose and continuing. "I was thinking…you and Katara could potentially be acrobats. You know, tightrope walker, trapeze, that kind of thing."

Katara's eyes widened, and she gulped. "_Tightrope?_ Sokka, what makes you think I can—"

"I'll do it."

The entire group turned to look at Zuko, who was facing the self-appointed Ringmaster. "I'll do the tightrope walking," he reiterated firmly.

Katara put up her hands. "Wait a minute. I didn't say I couldn't do it, I just said—"

"I have experience," the Fire Prince continued, looking at her now from where he sat on the ground. "I grew up with an acrobat. One of my sister's friends was one, and we were always going to the circus to watch—"

"_I said_, I can do it," Katara asserted with force behind her voice, frowning. "It's _fine_."

The group looked from one to the other, until finally Sokka tapped his writing instrument against his lips thoughtfully. "Okay, Zuko. Let's see what you can do."

The firebender stood, brushing off his tunic, and without hesitation he performed two perfect cartwheels across the grass before them—his posture straight and perfect, his heels flying over his head. He finished, and the group clapped politely; save for Katara, who stood up, her spine rigid. _Showoff_, she thought to herself crossly.

"Oh, come on…I can do that too—watch!" With a hopping start she twirled herself into a cartwheel as well, doing three of them in a row before landing neatly on her feet beside Zuko. They exchanged a sullen glare between them as the group politely applauded once more.

"Oh, yeah? Can you do this?" He bent and placed his palms on the ground, flipping his legs into the air after him, and held his body straight and locked in a handstand. His long red tunic fell slightly, revealing his taut stomach. The gang gasped and watched in awe as he barely moved, and Katara found herself watching his exposed torso and sinewy forearms for what ended up being a very long, awkward and speechless moment.

He let his legs fall, righting himself once more, and again the group clapped. He looked over at her expectantly, bronze eyes issuing a challenge. She snapped back to attention and resumed her scowl.

"Of _course_ I can. I've done lots of strength and stretching exercises. I'm _very_ flexible," she seethed, practically snarling the words at him before hoisting herself up on her hands and holding a steady handstand to rival his.

She realized belatedly that gravity would take its consequence on her clothing as it had on Zuko's, as her water tribe robe parted and slipped over her head to cover her face, and she knew then—with a feeling in her gut akin to a sinking sea prune—that her leggings and most likely her stomach were bared. It wasn't such a big deal to expose her bare skin in such a way to Aang, and to her brother, and to other members of the group; but to do it in front of the haughty Fire Prince was humiliating. To make it worse, the group's reaction to her handstand was dead silence. The only sound was that of Aang's slightly embarrassed cough.

Katara flipped her legs back down and righted herself again, trying desperately and futilely to hide the pink that had risen in her cheeks. Zuko was watching her as he had before, she noticed, but now with a glimmer of something she couldn't quite define in his good gold eye.

The rest of the small audience clapped again, hesitantly but courteously. Toph turned her head in Zuko's direction. "Do it again, Sparky! Let's see you do a _backflip!_"

"I can do that," Zuko asserted, his voice cocky. Katara felt herself turning positively green with envy, on top of the shameful pink from her earlier stunt.

Sokka—seeing his sister's livid reaction—was waving his arms, his list flapping in the breeze. "Okay! Okay! Know what? Aang can do the tightrope by himself. We'll have Katara as the gymnast, but as more of a…ground…thingie. Okay?"

Everyone seemed placated, particularly Katara, who folded her arms about her chest and regarded Zuko with a smirk. "Well, what do you want _me_ to do, then?" the Fire Prince asked, facing Sokka but addressing the group at large.

"I think I have the _perfect_ job for you, Zuko," Sokka asserted. The group looked on in curiosity as he turned and leaned down to pick up something resting on the ground behind him.

"What's that?"

Sokka turned back to face him with a leather skin in his hand that held some kind of fluid, an ecstatic grin splitting his face ear-to-ear. "This is an edible accelerant—kind of like the flammable peanut sauce that Teo's dad was working on, except sweeter and less viscous, so you can make a vapor with it. Coconut-flavored!" He pointed a joyously determined finger at the Fire Prince. "You're going to be a _Fire_-_breather_!"

Zuko's face fell flat. His good eye twitched.

"But Sokka, Zuko doesn't need an accelerant to breathe fire," Aang piped up helpfully. "He says all that he needs is tea and frustration!" He turned to the firebender with a grin, as Zuko's face reddened and his lips twisted in something resembling a grimace. "Go on, Zuko—tell him what frustrates you!"

The firebender in question self-consciously rubbed the back of his head, and made a concerted effort not to look anywhere near Katara. "Um…"

"Oh hey, it's okay; he doesn't have to use very much of it," Sokka reasoned, dipping his own finger into the skin of coconut sauce and tasting it, smacking his lips noisily. "It's mainly to prove that he's _not_ a firebender, and that it's the trick he uses to breathe flame. That way we avoid any suspicion that he's Fire Nation royalty." His smug grin faded momentarily as he cupped his bearded chin in thought. "Although that scar is pretty recognizable, too, so he'll have to wear a mask—"

He stopped short as he realized Zuko was looking at him, and Sokka reasoned, "It was either that, or sword-swallowing—"

Zuko sighed and held up his hands wearily. "Fine, fine. I'll be the fire-breather, if that's what you want."

"I thought you'd be _happy_ to use your firebending whenever you could," Katara said, unable to resist a jab, her voice tinged with sarcasm. She was still slightly worked up from their little gymnastics competition, and in her head she again saw him throwing one of his deadly whips of fire in Aang's direction, as he had during the earlier mini-Agni Kai.

Zuko said nothing in response. He stared at her levelly and tight-lipped.

Her frown deepened. She couldn't help herself, and continued, "You certainly never used to hold back doing it, before…in fact, you regularly make a point of it to use it when you don'tneed to. You don't even think twice about the damage you could do. You could _really hurt somebody!_"

Her retort won her a glare from her brother—_Katara, you __**promised**__,_ she could almost hear him pleading silently—and she felt a momentary shame at letting her irritation get the better of her once more.

Zuko looked as though he wanted to respond with a sarcastic comment in kind, but he bit his lip to prevent any words from prematurely escaping. She watched then, as he focused on her with such intensity in his gold stare that she nearly shivered.

"You don't have to remind me that fire is destructive, and harmful," he reminded her tersely. "_I know_. I doubt there are very many who know it as well as I do." Against her will, Katara found her gaze drawn to the pink and puckered flesh on the side of his face. She looked away from it hurriedly as he went on, his eyes still locked with hers.

His voice rose. "But _I'm_ the one training Aang to wield this dangerous power—_not you_. You're right, I don't hold back with regard to my firebending. And I hope, for not only his sake but for everyone's sake, that when it comes time for Aang to face my father—the _Fire Lord_—and defeat him, that _he_ doesn't hold back, either."

There was a momentary lull in the group's conversation as they faced off with one another silently, each staring the other down as if it were a battle of wills; finally, Sokka broke the terse silence by clapping his hands briskly and authoritatively.

"Okaaaay," he said uncertainly, a smile plastered to his face, "glad we…uhhh…got that settled." He looked around at the rest of the group, as Zuko marched stiffly away and Katara folded her arms over her chest again, sulking, before stalking off in the opposite direction. "All right…who's ready for some circus action?"

Toph huffed indignantly and directed her words at Sokka as she walked off, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Maybe we should just have _gladiator-style cage-fighting_ as the main event. That's a circus act, right?"

Sokka deflated.

-o-

-o-

As the group neared the modest-looking village on foot, they could see the carnival clearly. Enormous tents had sprung up all along the outskirts of the town; there was festive music playing, and the scent of grilled meats and other delicacies wafted to their noses. They stopped at the edge of a forest overlooking the entrance of the village, keeping out of sight as best they could from the Fire Nation soldiers that guarded the path heading straight into the heart of it.

"Oohhhh, you can just smell the _food_," the Duke lamented wistfully, his face covered in white clown's paint; Teo, similarly painted and in his chair beside him, patted his shoulder in consolation.

Toph turned to Zuko. "Aren't we going to head on in?"

"Sokka said he would meet us back here," Zuko responded, crossing his arms over his chest. "He had to go talk to the circus conductor first, and get the approval for our payment today." He looked down at the all-black attire he'd changed into, provided for him at the last minute, and tugged on the hem of his dark, loose-fitting tunic. "I don't get it. Why is it that only Katara and I have to wear completely different costumes, to perform?"

"Katara's clothing would give her away as 'Water Tribe' in an instant," Teo spoke up. "And with your scar, as well as your Fire Nation clothes, you're way too recognizable as the Prince. I thought I heard Aang saying something about how there used to be 'wanted' posters of you scattered all throughout the Earth Kingdom?"

Zuko slipped the black half-mask over his eyes and the bridge of his nose, securing it with a tied ribbon at the back of his head. "There still are," he responded quietly.

"You're lucky. I have to wear this stupid hat," Aang grumbled, pointing to the orange and red jester's cap that covered his bare and tattooed head.

Katara sat on a tree stump in a secluded, hidden area between the trees, as Haru painted her face carefully with red make-up. She hadn't yet donned her costume that Sokka had provided for her—attempting to put it off as long as possible—but her facepaint was part of the disguise.

"This is coming along nicely," Haru breathed quietly, stroking a finger covered with red paint in an ornate design across her cheek. "I'm going by an artist's rendition I saw once of a female spirit. You're going to look really beautiful when this is done, Katara."

She smiled, glancing down beside her at her reflection in the water. Haru was painting her face to look like her secret identity, her alter ego that she had acted upon while in the Fire Nation. None of the group had ever mentioned to him that she'd actually worn the role and not just the make-up; but Katara wasn't about to divulge it now. _Bygones are bygones, and I probably didn't do her that much justice, anyway. _The real spirit she had met that night by the water had been ethereally beautiful by comparison.

When he was done and she had changed into her costume, Katara stepped forward from behind the cover of trees, simultaneously adjusting both the bodice and the ankle-length skirt of the lily-white, diaphanous two-piece ensemble. She plucked at it nervously as she approached the rest of the group. "I'm not exactly sure I'm comfortable with this," she announced, with hesitation.

Her entrance was met with appreciative smiles and stares from Aang and Teo. "Wow, you look great, Katara," Teo offered, while Aang's mouth worked silently, gray eyes wide and a bit sad.

"Thank you." Her cheeks pinked slightly beneath the face paint, and she pushed a lock of hair self-consciously behind her ear.

She turned her head discreetly in Zuko's direction. Upon seeing his dark ensemble and his face covered by the black half-mask, she was momentarily startled. It was almost as if he had suddenly become someone else—not a firebender, not the Fire Lord's son, not the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, but someone wild and untamed and unknown. With the mask most of his features were hidden, enshrouding him in mystery. She caught his gold eyes flickering over her with brief interest before they skipped away hurriedly; framed as they were by black, they looked like miniature sparks of flame in a field of night. She shivered imperceptibly.

Katara pulled her eyes away and chastised herself, focusing instead on Aang, and the way his eyes followed her around the forest clearing with every step she took, as if she might blow away with the wind the instant that he turned his gaze from her.

"Doesn't she?" Haru was asking the group proudly, still gazing at her and admiring his own handiwork. "I think she's even more beautiful than the spirit I painted her after."

Aang was opening his mouth to reply, but Zuko spoke up sooner. "You missed part of the design around her eyes, though."

The group fell eerily silent, save for Haru. "What?" he asked.

"The Painted Lady's eyes are completely swathed in red—it goes from the bridge of her nose, out to her temples." Zuko drew his finger along his own masked eyes to demonstrate. "You only did her eyelids and brows." He touched his forehead. "And the crescent moon is upside-down."

A collective gasp went up from both Aang and Toph, while Katara attempted to pick her jaw up from where it had surely crashed to the forest floor.

"How do you know about that legend, Zuko?" Haru asked curiously.

"She's a Fire Nation spirit," he replied. "All of us on the islands grew up hearing stories and seeing paintings of her. I've never actually encountered her, but…" he gave Katara another once-over, "I would imagine this is as close as I'd ever get."

Katara felt slightly wobbly on her feet at his words, and at his eyes in the black mask as he spoke them. Even so, she had to try with every ounce of her strength not to chortle at the idea of Zuko knowing the intimate details of the Painted Lady's make-up.

"You can say that aga—_ow!_" Toph was interrupted by a rough nudge from Aang, next to her. She poked him hard with a finger. "_Watch it_, Twinkletoes—don't forget I know where you are, especially with that stupid jester's cap on."

Suddenly a skinny, bearded figure was shouting and waving at them from halfway down toward the village, and the group turned to see who it was. Toph was faster. "It's Sokka!" she grinned, and started off at a run down the path. Katara paused, before falling into step behind the rest of the group as they headed towards the town. Zuko's steps slowed as she approached, almost as though it were deliberate; she increased her pace as she passed him by.

"We're in," Sokka was saying in a fierce whisper, as soon as they reached his side. "We'll get a full day's worth of pay for a few hours of performances. Half of us will perform first, and then the other half will finish up the show. After that, you'll get paid and you're free to go shop for supplies." The others nodded in affirmation. "Okay, we're coming up on the border here—everyone act normal."

They were stopped at the threshold of the village by Fire Nation soldiers, who promptly blocked their entrances. "State your business," they demanded.

Sokka stepped to the front of the group, clearing his throat authoritatively and dropping his voice a few serious octaves. "Hullo there, my good man. I am _Wang Fire_, and this is my famous circus troupe."

One of the soldiers looked the kids over once, and turned back to Sokka. "Does your famous troupe have a name?"

Wang Fire's eye twitched. "Why, _yes_. They are the—uh—the Fire…Balls." Behind him, unseen by the soldiers, Sokka heard the Duke smack his forehead with the palm of his hand.

"_Fire Balls_?" the other soldier asked skeptically. "Never heard of them."

"Well, we're mostly famous within the more eastern realms—but _that's not important_." Sokka laughed jovially. He held up a slip of paper with writing on it and adopted a stern tone. "We've been given permission by the conductor to perform today. So please, my good man—step aside, we haven't got all day, and my troupe has to get ready for their show." He made a move to push past the soldiers, but they held him back.

"All right. But before we allow you in, you should know that this town has undergone a tightening of security," one of the soldiers stated. "There is a no-crime tolerance here, and any minor infraction of the rules or laws will result in swift and immediate punishment. That goes for disrupting the peace, harassment, public intoxication…and _stealing_, as well." There was a glare followed by the emphasized words.

"Good to know, good to know." Sokka pushed past him once more, and the rest of the group followed behind. "We're model citizens, I assure you, good man, but we're quite busy. Keep up the good work there, uh…guarding." The soldiers parted slightly to let the kids pass through into the village.

One of them suddenly stopped Zuko with a hand on the masked firebender's arm, pulling him aside. Zuko was momentarily startled. "What?!" he demanded indignantly, recoiling from the soldier's grip.

The guard motioned with his hand to the scabbard slung across Zuko's back, containing his twin broadswords. "Unauthorized weapons such as these are prohibited here," he replied sternly. The rest of the group had stopped as well, turned back to face the scene, and fought to hide their fearful grimaces.

Katara bit her lip and frowned. _He's endangered us, just by bringing them._

But Zuko was nonchalant. "The swords are part of my act," he replied quickly, the lie rolling off of his tongue with ease. "I combine them with my fire-breathing."

Wang Fire stepped in again to back him up, twirling his fake mustache and bellowing loudly. "Oh yes—_spectacular_ show, really. Magnificent. You must come see it—"

The guard frowned, before letting up his hands in a gesture of supplication—apparently listening to Wang Fire's babbling was more tiresome than enforcing the rules. "All right, all right. As long as it's for the show, and nothing else." He stepped aside and allowed the rest to pass into the village. The other kids discreetly breathed sighs of relief, and moved on.

Once far enough past the guards' station, Sokka turned to the Fire Prince. "You almost blew it back there, for us," he seethed with quiet irritation. "Why'd you bring the broadswords? I _told_ you, you're not doing sword swallowing!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Zuko hissed in response. "I can't swallow these anyway, even if I tried—the blade's too big!"

"Then what'd you bring them for?"

An unyielding, determined gaze accompanied the answer. "Protection."

-o-

-o-

The festival surrounding the circus was in full swing. Passerby strolled through the city streets in their own masks and costumes, laughing and enjoying themselves. Vendors had set up open-air shops along the busiest path, advertising spicy meats sizzling on spits, as well as sweet and fragrant desserts. Katara could smell roasted star and lychee fruit, sticky rice with with coconut cream and sugar, and fried bananas with honey. The aroma was intoxicating, and she felt her stomach grumbling in agreement.

The Duke must have felt the same, because he was gazing at the displays with hunger in his eyes. "Can we stop for a bite to eat, first? It smells so _good_…"

Katara reached into the knapsack that was still at her waist and produced some pieces of dried pineapple and mango. "Here. That should hold you over a bit until you perform, and then you can go with the others to buy some food with the money we earn. Okay?" The Duke smiled gratefully, and quickly made short order of the snack she'd offered him.

Uncertainty lodged itself in her belly like a rock, as she looked at the boy. _We'd better perform well, so we can stock up on food as fast as we can._

They came upon a group of small, individual tents, meant for costume changes between circus performances. Sokka turned to each of them. "Zuko, you, the Duke, Toph and Haru will be up first. After that you can collect your day's pay, and then Katara, Aang, and Teo will perform. You guys better get all the shopping you need to done by the time we're ready to go, okay?" Zuko and the others nodded in response.

Aang leaned in to look at his own tiny personal dressing room, and peeked through the entrance flap—only to suddenly jerk backwards, stammering and red-faced as his pointed hat nearly fell off in his surprise. "Uh—I'm—I'm sorry!" He stumbled and tripped over his own feet, falling to the ground. The rest of the group turned to look, and the monk pointed at his tent from where he sat on the ground. "There's someone else in there," he explained to them weakly.

A young girl emerged from the tent's opening. She looked to be roughly Aang's and Toph's age, with two long braids of dark brown hair trailing past her shoulders, and a friendly, open face. She was also dressed in an orange-and-red circus performer's costume. She stood with her hands on her hips.

"Hi! I'm Leela," she announced to the group, directing her rapidly-chattering words mostly at the airbender on the ground. "My uncle is the circus conductor. Isn't that great? He told me you guys would be performing today. And guess what? I get to perform _with_ you!" She giggled and clasped her hands together, grinning at Aang, who righted himself—without his airbending—and regarded her with caution. "We're going to do the trapeze and tightrope together!"

Aang rubbed his head through the jester's cap a bit confusedly. "Really? Umm…okay."

Katara could tell the young monk was now slightly concerned; if he had a tightrope partner, it would be difficult to conceal the use of his airbending for some of his stunts. She stepped forward and gently addressed the girl. "I'm Katara. Leela, it's nice to meet you, and we're really glad your uncle is letting us perform today on such short notice. But…high-wire acts are _very dangerous_, and Aang…has a lot of experience. Do you really think you're up to performing with him today?"

Leela grinned. "Oh, yes! I've had lots of practice. I'll be fine, don't worry about me!" She looked back again at Aang, fixing him with her beaming smile. "We're going to have so much fun!" His shoulders sunk in acquiescence.

"Well, if you insist," Katara was saying, but she stopped herself from speaking further when she heard horns beginning to sound from the main circus tent. The rest of the group paused to listen.

"I think that's us." Zuko turned to the Duke, who was nervously wringing his hands. He put a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine," he said in an assuaging tone. "If you want, we can practice doing somersaults before we have to go on." The Duke nodded with an eight-year-old's skepticism, and followed his lead.

Toph was already motioning to Haru, cracking her knuckles as she walked. "Let's go, Blockhead; it's time to show these people why earthbenders do the best party tricks."

"Good luck!" Aang called out, waving. Leela, beside him, waved at his friends as well; eyeing her, Aang's excited smile turned into a slightly-annoyed glare.

"We don't have to just sit and wait for them to be finished," Teo commented to the remainder of the group, "we can go watch them perform! Come on!" He started off, wheeling in the direction of the main tent, and the others followed.

-o-

-o-

The crowd inside of the main arena was enormous. There were literally hundreds of people crammed underneath the white tent, some of them fanning themselves with paper fans to keep the heat at bay, at what was arguably the warmest summer day of the year so far. Adults chattered noisily, and children screeched and alternately cheered at the short performances at the forefront of the ringed area.

Katara, Teo, Aang, and Leela made their way into the wings of the arena, somehow managing to avoid being stepped on by frantic circus performers and backstage hands. "Wow, it's really crowded in here," Teo noted with awe, looking out into the massive throng of people in the audience. "I can't believe how many people showed up to see the circus!"

"I only hope they buy our performances," Katara said lowly, a trace of concern in her voice.

Leela pushed gently against Aang's shoulder to try to get a better look at the center ring. "Are your friends up, yet? Where are they? I can't see anything!"

Now openly irritated, Aang shrugged her hands away. "Hey, quit pushing me!"

She met his scowl with an indomitable cheerfulness. "I can't wait to see your fire-breather friend perform! He's so mysterious-looking with that mask…I bet he's totally _dreamy_ underneath!" She clasped her hands together and giggled coquettishly; Aang rolled his eyes and sulked.

Suddenly a booming voice, made louder with a sounding horn, echoed throughout the tent. It took Katara a moment to recognize it as her brother's. "_Ladies and Gents!_ Good Earth Kingdom Citizens! It's my pleasure to introduce to you…_the Fire Balls!"_

_The name definitely leaves something to be desired_, Katara thought, as she tried not to wince. Sokka's proclamation was followed by the sound of trumpeting horns—musicians at the back of the tent providing the sounds—and her attention was diverted to a side ring, where Toph had stepped forward and addressed the audience with a wave, before flexing her fingers and pushing up her sleeves.

"For our first performance—a demonstration of power, by none other than the Strongest Girl in the Earth Kingdom!"

People in the crowd were hushed. "Look how tiny she is," they whispered to one another, in awe—right before the earthbender squatted down and prepared to lift an enormous boulder of rock approximately twenty times her size.

At first she feigned weakness and instability, her arms purposefully trembling, her mouth grimacing with exaggerated worry. "Uh ohhh! I'm gonna drop it…I'm gonna _droppp itttt!_" The children in the lower tiers of the audience shrieked and pointed fearfully—until with a triumphant gleam in her eye, Toph hoisted the boulder high above her head and held it there. She beamed a wide smile at the crowd.

The women in the audience gasped, the men were dumbfounded, and the children cheered. "I want to be as strong as she is!" the kids crowed, tugging on their parents' sleeves.

Toph took it one step further; she heaved the gargantuan rock into the air above her and caught it as it fell to her again, drawing even more gasps. The Duke, dressed in his clown disguise, was doing his newly-learnt somersaults—most likely taught to him by Zuko, before their performance—at the forefront of the ring. He righted himself from the floor and took a bow, grinning. The audience clapped enthusiastically for both of them, and Katara smiled to herself.

"Now, you've heard the rumors, and this is what you've all been waiting for," Sokka announced dramatically, his voice amplified by the sounding horn. "I suggest everyone in the audience take care to remain in their seats, and not get too close to the ring…because here comes the _Fire-breather!_" The musicians began a precarious drum beat, rough and staccato.

Amidst delighted cheering from the crowd, Zuko entered the main ring, a lit baton torch in one hand and a small pouch of the accelerant in the other. He was still in his black half-mask, disguising the scar on his face; Katara wondered absently whether they would have cheered as loudly if the audience had known it was the banished Prince of the Fire Nation himself, stepping into the ring to perform.

He sipped quickly from the accelerant and raised his baton, blowing a fine mist of the spray into the flame as he did. A bright yellow and orange blast of fire rose high into the air from the torch, almost reaching the audience in the higher-tiered seats, and the people in the sidelines cried out fearfully and shrank back in their chairs.

_Oh!_ She wanted to yell out to him that he was being reckless and careless again, but Katara covered her mouth with her hand to stem such an outburst. Beside her, she felt both Aang and Teo gasp in surprise. Even the Duke cowered at the fiery onslaught from where he stood at the other side of the ring, his saucer-wide eyes alight with red and bronze hues.

He seemed to have realized what he'd almost done; Zuko took a step backwards, lowering the lit baton cautiously. He sipped again from the accelerant and this time bent at the waist, lowering his body in a graceful lunge and blowing a breath of flame close and parallel to the ground. It coated the dry earth like a brilliant gold blanket as he weaved it along the floor of the arena, and from their seats the spectators _ooohhh'd_ and cheered.

The flame bounced off of the ground and lifted off into the air again, and this time he propelled it, exhaling, twisting his body around in a circle. The fire radiated outwards, rotating gracefully as he did, as if it were a carousel. Then he tipped his neck back and blew the flame above his head once more, and as he turned in place the blaze tightened into corkscrew-like ringlets, pointed at the sky. The crowd gasped with pleasure. He had ceased sipping from the skin and lowered the torch; Katara could no longer tell whether he was using the accelerant or his own inner heat to fan the flames.

She could almost hear him describing the moves as he performed them, as though he were whispering the names in her ear, just for her. The bright blaze danced like a fiery winged serpent, oscillating through the air as he walked beside it and fed into it with his breath. _This is called Walking the Dragon_. Now it arced upward above his head, forming a glittering semi-circular arch. _Sunrise_. The arch swept downwards, the fire just barely grazing the ground. _Sunset_. He held the flame steady above him and continued to nurture it, as it spiraled even higher into the air; she imagined it was a resplendent plume from some great and powerful bird made of fire. _Dragon's Breath_.

It was fire, but it was not all-consuming and annihilating; it was light, it was heat, it was warmth. It was life. _Like the sun, but coming from inside of him._

It was beautiful, and Katara felt her mouth drop open with awe. She felt like a tiny, insignificant child next to such a display.

"_Wow._" She hadn't even realized she had whispered the word aloud until she heard the young boy and girl's emphatic agreements on either side of her.

"Fire is the most amazing element out of all of them," Leela said into her right ear, her girlish voice unusually soft and quiet, and Aang unconsciously leaned in closer to listen. "It has such a capacity for destruction and death…but at the same time, it has just as much potential to protect, purify, and create."

_Fire isn't the only one of the elements to walk that line_, Katara thought in response, ducking her head as she recalled the loathsome old puppetmaster who had shown her that waterbending could be a brutal, deadly act. But she also knew from experience that having such a power changed the owner of it, fundamentally. _I know now how much harm I can do, how much damage I can cause. And because of that, I must always find a balance…I must always look for a way to temper it. _With a new understanding, she looked over again at the masked Fire Prince.

His performance finally winding down, Zuko let the last of his breathed flames die into dark smoke and extinguish themselves.The audience applauded loudly as he took his bows—the children in the crowd cheering the loudest of all, sparks of his fire still reflected in their eager eyes—and he backed away to leave the center ring to Haru and his juggling act.

Teo tugged at Katara's arm. "We should get going. They're almost done with their performances, and we'll be up next."

-o-

-o-

Katara had needed the time to prepare for her own routine. She'd been rather stiff the past few days, and she was worried it would render her inflexible; but she lunged and stretched, feeling her muscles give as she worked at them, lengthening them and making them pliant. She could hear Aang and Leela practicing not far away under the same tent, preparing for their own performances.

"It's like this—watch," Aang instructed her, as he walked carefully along a level beam only inches off the ground. He kept his arms out on either side of him, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.

Leela huffed. "I _know how to do it, Aang." _She pushed past him to walk on the beam herself and cleared it quickly, deftly putting one foot in front of the other before hopping down beside him.

"You did that faster than I did!" Aang exclaimed, and she grinned proudly. "But the trapeze is even harder. It's all about where you place your feet and hands, and how good your balance is—"

"My balance is just _fine!_" She had leapt back up onto the beam and was running across it this time, to the young monk's surprise.

Wang Fire poked his head inside the tent, his beard almost falling off in the rush. "You guys are on in, like, five!" he seethed impatiently. "Seriously! _Hurry up!_"

They made their way to the main tent once more, and as Katara and Teo prepared themselves on the ground, Aang and Leela scaled the small ladders on the side of the crossbar supports that would lead them to the roof of the tent. They were to perform more than fifty feet above the floor of the center ring.

Sokka and Teo cruised by the audience on a clown cart that Teo operated with his hands. "Good Earth Kingdom citizens!" Wang Fire announced through his sounding horn, from the front seat. "Up next, I have for you the acrobats—the first a girl so agile and supple, you might think she's made of liquid herself! Presenting the…ahhh…_bender!_" Though she nearly groaned through her teeth, Katara forced a valiant smile for the crowd, and waved.

"Following that, I have on the tightrope and trapeze, two of the lightest-footed kids you will ever see!" He pointed above, and the crowd lifted their faces in awe. "Watch them as they walk the wire and soar through the air, as effortlessly as birds. Presenting…the…._children of the clouds!_" Aang and Leela both waved to the crowd, high atop the tightrope platform.

The drums from the far side of the arena began to sound once more, and Katara took them as her cue. She began to dance slowly, making fluid, sweeping movements with her arms and legs in time to the drumbeats. They were waterbending postures, and they made her wish she could use her bending in accordance with the motions, but it was almost as therapeutic to dance with them in time to music. Her simpler movements gave way to more complicated poses—backbends and walkovers—and the audience marveled at her flexibility.

Sixty feet above ground, at the top of the tent, the two young children were preparing to walk the tightrope. Leela looked down at the floor of the ring below, her braids falling over her shoulders as she did, her eyes registering just the barest trace of fear. It was hot at the top of the tent, with the torches placed on long stilts to allow the crowd to see them, and nowhere for the hot air to escape; Leela's forehead was coated with a light sheen of sweat.

"Don't be afraid," Aang said to her under his breath, to calm her, "there's a net below us to catch us if we fall. Just remember what I told you, and don't—"

"I know what to do!" she snapped in response, and held her arms out on either side of her for balance as she prepared to walk.

Aang shrank back at her scolding, before frowning impatiently. "I'm just trying to help! If we screw up, my friends will get into trouble!"

"Your friends are _already in trouble_, Aang."

She had turned back to look at him strangely as she'd said it, and Aang watched her, openmouthed, stunned just as much by what she said as he was by the knowing and smirking expression on her face.

Before he could respond she was stepping out onto the rope, her hands on either side to balance, and the crowd below them surged and cheered.

-o-

-o-

"Toph and I will pick up some clothing and mending supplies, and anything else we might need," Haru was telling the group outside of the tent, as each partitioned their amounts of cash received for their performances. They were still in their performers' costumes, ready to shop. "You and the Duke will be responsible for getting the food, okay? We'll rendezvous back here in half an hour, and by then the others should be done and we can go." The others nodded, and they parted ways.

The Duke followed behind Zuko dutifully as they weaved their way through the crowds. They made their way back into the heart of the village, where the vendors displayed their wares along the streets; the air was alive with the thrumming sound of people and the smell of delectable foods.

"That was really, uh, interesting, what you did back there," the Duke started tentatively, as he jogged alongside Zuko to keep up with the firebender's strides. "In the ring, I mean," he clarified.

Zuko turned and regarded him with a surprised look. "You liked it? You didn't think it was too much?"

"No, it was really—it was amazing," the boy responded, his confidence bolstered. "I was a little scared, at first," he admitted, "but when you had control of it and started making shapes and doing the—" he twirled his hands in the air to demonstrate—"things with it, I thought it looked really cool." He smiled for emphasis, his painted mouth looking a bit goofy with his clown makeup still on.

Zuko's own lips quirked upwards, in a faintly relieved semblance of a grin. "Thanks."

"No problem."

They took their time shopping along the busy street, gathering the necessary food items to feed the entire group. Their knapsacks filled quickly—dried meat and fruit and nuts didn't weigh much or take up that much space, but the fresh produce was becoming heavy. _We could have really used an earthbender's help, even if it would have meant outing us as the Avatar's cohorts,_ Zuko thought sullenly.

"Can we eat, yet?" the Duke was asking, hungrily eyeing the displays around them; but Zuko shook his head.

"Not just yet. We still have a few more things to get. Aang wanted papayas, and Sokka wanted—" he double-checked the handwritten list given to him again, "—'meat on a stick', whatever that means…and Katara wanted coconut milk. I'm not sure why she'd want that, but maybe it's for cooking, because I think she said something once about trying to make a curry dish…" His voice trailed off as he considered the uses for such a request.

The Duke bit his lip. Unseen by his companion, he pressed his hands against his stomach, trying to quell the pangs of hunger. His eyes scanned his surroundings, and fixed upon a vendor's cart full of apple-pears to the immediate right of him. He sidled up to it slowly while Zuko was busy browsing the grilled meat section.

The young boy looked left. He looked right. No one was paying any attention to him—he was a little kid, dressed in a costume with clown makeup, nearly invisible to the busy shoppers and vendors—and the coast seemed clear. He took a shaky, uncertain breath, and with practiced hands he reached up into the cart and snatched a single piece of fruit. He stuck it under his shirt and began to walk, calmly but purposefully.

The vendor hadn't been watching—but a couple of Fire Nation soldiers had.

"_Hey!_" they crowed, almost in unison. The Duke froze, a panicked expression on his face before he began to run. He could hear them giving chase down the small street. "_Thief!_ You, there—stop where you are!"

Zuko turned at the commotion just as he saw the two soldiers seize the boy, one hand on each of his arms, the Duke struggling obstinately but ineffectually. The firebender's mouth dropped, as did the knapsacks of food he'd been carrying.

"_Let me go!_ I didn't do nothin'!" the boy screeched, fighting against his captors.

The soldiers fished the lone apple-pear out of the Duke's costume. "This is 'nothing'?" one of them asked sarcastically. "There's a severe penalty in this town for stealing. You're about to find out just how severe, you little brat."

"Please—" the Duke begged, "—I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…I won't do it again, I promise—"

"Let him go." Zuko was standing before them now as they held the boy, the groceries gone, his hands open and flexing at his sides, and his eyes—even his scarred one—as stern as his voice.

The soldiers scoffed. "This kid broke the rules. You were warned when you came here that there are penalties for doing so. He'll have to face the consequences." The Duke's eyes were full of tears. Zuko could see that he was humiliated and afraid.

_I am your loyal son._ A shiver passed through him; his resolve hardened even further.

"You said it yourself; he's just a kid," he challenged. "He's a little boy who made a mistake. He knows that, and he's sorry. You don't need to punish him for it—_let him go_."

One of them bore down on him. "I don't think you're in any position to be telling us what to do, _outsider_." He signaled to the other soldier holding the Duke by the backs of his arms, who turned to leave, dragging the boy with him. "You're not the authority here—_we are_. He's not too young to do jail time, and we're not going to just let him go off scot-free for what he's done." He turned away as well to follow the other.

There was a soft sound of steel scraping sheath; the sound of blades being drawn. When the soldiers turned back to face him, they were met with the sight of Zuko standing with his feet apart, dual broadswords at the ready, one in each hand.

"_I insist_," he said simply. There was no mistaking the threat in the two simple words.

One of the soldiers laughed. "Looks like you obviously need to be taught a lesson, as well." He came closer, grabbing his own sword with a wicked, serrated edge—Zuko recognized it as a Devil's Head blade—from its scabbard as he spoke. "Don't worry—I'll be sure to make it drawn-out and painful."

For a moment both faced off with one another, motionless and still; in the next instant the soldier was lunging with his sword, the blade narrowly missing the Prince's head. Zuko ducked backwards to avoid it. The Duke, watching the scene, gasped in fright.

The soldier lunged again, and brought the blade down hard two more times. Zuko dodged each thrust effortlessly, somersaulting away while still holding both blades. He could hear the sound of the Duke now laughing brightly at his antics, and it was apparent they were getting to his opponent as well.

"Stop dancing around like a schoolboy, and _fight me!_" the officer growled, eyes bulging and chest heaving with breaths.

Zuko thought of Aang's light feet and smiled. "I'm not dancing," he retorted, "you just have bad aim."

This made the soldier's face grow lividly red. He attacked again with a yell, rushing at the firebender, this time driven by reckless rage. It was the foolish move Zuko had been waiting for.

He brought his own swords up and crossed them against the soldier's. There was a crashing of metal as the blades met. Despite the fact that the officer was bigger in build, there was no way he was getting past the strength of the dual broadswords; Zuko pushed him, and the man went stumbling backwards.

The officer charged again and now Zuko let his blades fly, the full force of each of them striking the Devil's Head blade with precise strokes, one following the other as though it were two halves of a whole sword. The soldier tried his best to deflect the onslaught, but he was no match for the _dao_ sabers that moved as one blade.

After another devastating hit, the soldier dropped his blade; he scrabbled for it on the ground, but Zuko pressed it down against the dirt with his boot. He held his swords at the man's neck, simultaneously kicking the other blade away. "Now yield."

The man cowered in the dirt and held up his hands. "I yield! _I yield!_"

The other soldier had released the Duke, and was calling for reinforcements. He readied a ball of flame in his hands—_a bender_, Zuko realized nearly a moment too late—and a burst of fire shot forth from his fist, toward the Prince's face. Zuko pulled away just in time, but the fire licked at the edges of his black face mask, and it began to burn. He yanked it off of his face; it disintegrated in a puff of dark smoke.

The Duke looked over at him for guidance and Zuko waved to him, directing him to stay back. It was too dangerous while they were firebending.

The man on the ground gasped in surprise. "I know you…you're _Prince Zuko!_ You're wanted by my superior, General Zhang, on the charge of treason!"

Zuko scoffed. _So much for anonymity_. "Take a number."

With a shout, the other soldier bent another burst of flame in his direction. Zuko dodged it carefully and swung his broadswords in a wide arc, breathing a volley of fire into them as he did, the fire dancing along the metal blades as the steel magnified it. He let it loose and the resulting blast knocked the man backwards into a cart full of vendor's wares, demolishing it as he fell on it with his full weight.

Another two uniformed firebenders leapt into the action and attacked, raining down a cascade of fiery punches. Zuko deflected them with his swords. He looked up with concern as he noticed more were on the way.

The Duke was backing slowly away from the scene, preparing to make a run for it to contact their friends—only to stop as a rough hand seized his collar and yanked him backwards. "Where do you think _you're_ going?" the voice of a Fire Nation officer demanded. "You've been cau—_oof!_" His voice was abruptly cut off as a pillar of rock underneath him launched him high into the air. He fell, screaming, through a canopy and into a shopowner's displays.

"Oh, I'm sorry—was he saying something?" Toph asked, smirking as she stood with her hands at her hips. The Duke's face lit up into a huge smile. Behind her, Haru had already started to close off the approaching Fire Nation soldiers' advances with a wall of rock.

"Hey, Hotpants," she called out in Zuko's direction, "what's with you starting a fight all by your lonesome? You couldn't even wait for little ol' me to show up?"

Zuko grinned, and shouted back, "I was counting on it all along!"

Toph rubbed her hands together, demolition on her mind. She chuckled. "_Excellent._"

-o-

-o-

Aang watched as Leela walked the beam sixty feet above the audience, carefully and cautiously. She was halfway across, when he decided he couldn't take it anymore—he had to know just what she was speaking of when she had cryptically mentioned his friends_._ He started across the tightrope, himself.

The rope trembled slightly. Leela glanced backwards at him. Above the roar of the crowd below, she shouted, slightly panicked, "What are you doing? You have to wait for your turn!"

He balanced himself carefully, both arms out on either side of him as he walked. "You have to tell me what you meant," he shouted back, mindful to keep his eyes fixed on her ahead of him, and not on the throngs of people sixty feet below.

"You got out on this rope too just to ask me that?" She looked as though she didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and Leela shook her head to herself and continued across.

Aang walked faster. "What do you mean, my friends are _already in trouble?_ What does that mean? How do you know?"

"Focus, Aang!" she yelled back, and hurriedly tip-toed the remainder of the rope, performing a flourished, somersaulting leap onto the small platform attached to the other side. Aang's keen ears caught her forceful exhale as she did it, and his eyes widened even further in surprise. _What was __**that?**_

She turned back to face him as he walked carefully toward her. "You still have a way to go. Don't think about anything else—just watch me, and I'll grab your hand when you're close enough."

He focused obediently on her eyes as he came closer, ignoring the cheers and screams from the crowd. Something about her eyes seemed strangely familiar to him; they made him think there was something he ought to have remembered, something just vaguely hinted at the edges of his awareness. His brain felt a bit foggy.

But…it was a good feeling, a warm feeling. It reminded him of comfort. It reminded him, in a weird, strange way, of Appa.

Her small hand closed around his wrist, and he felt himself being pulled off of the tightrope to stand next to her on the platform. The audience erupted in more cheers, as they stood pressed together, face to face. "Your eyes…they're grey," he noted dumbly, staring into them.

Leela looked at him quizzically for a moment, then burst out into joyous laughter. "Yes, they are! Now _bow_, silly!" She turned to deliver a bow to the crowd below, and Aang quickly followed suit.

The trapeze was hung on a hook next to the platform they stood on, and she removed it and handed the bar to him. "You first," she asserted, her eyes twinkling.

"You're not going to answer my question?" he asked, eyes wide, even as he took the trapeze bar from her.

She leaned in. "About how I know your friends are in trouble? I'm not the only one who knows." Before he was ready, she gave him a short push off of the platform, and he flew through the air as he held onto the bar, yelling in fright as he sailed to the other end of the tightrope.

Leela cupped her mouth with her hand to yell to him. "Use your knees, so you can pick me up on the next swing with your hands!" He did as he was told, pulling his legs up so he could hang by his knees; on the next pass he held out his hands, suspended upside-down, and she leapt from the platform to grab onto them. The audience cheered their approval.

Aang was persistent, even as they swung back and forth through the air together, hands clasped. "Tell me how you know about my friends! And who else knows? …And why don't _I_ know?"

"Maybe you do know, deep down," she retorted, "and you just haven't given it enough thought."

"What?"

"Are your friends important to you, Aang?" she asked sincerely, and suddenly her entire teasing and joking manner was gone. "Are they the most important thing to you, in the world? Would you do anything to ensure they stayed safe?"

His face registered shock. "O-of course! Yes! I love my friends—I'd do anything for them!"

She gave pause. "Are you certain?"

There was a sudden commotion in the crowd below. Aang looked down, and saw that people from the audience were scattering, shouting, clamoring as they cleared their seats, no longer watching the kids on the trapeze.

"What's going on?" he asked, bewildered, before he caught sight of Katara in her white costume on the ground, yelling up to him. Without thinking, he inhaled deeply and bent the air toward him, so her words could reach him above the noise of the circus tent.

"_Aang! Come down from there, right now! You have to help—there's a fight in the marketplace, I think Zuko and Toph are in trouble!_"

In his confusion, his grip on Leela's wrists lessened. She felt it, meeting his eyes briefly, hers alight with something he couldn't recognize—and she glanced quickly downward, before looking back up into his face once more with a knowing expression that bordered on a small smile.

She suddenly let go of his hands.

"N-_no!_" He scrabbled for her wrists, but she was already out of reach; Leela was plummeting quickly towards the earth. They had swung so far over on the trapeze, she was sure to miss the net. His heart jumped into his throat.

He was taking a breath to catch her with his airbending, when he saw something that made his jaw drop.

Leela blew a forceful breath at the ground, a deep exhale—and slowed her fall to a standstill. She twisted her body, still breathing, the vortex of air below her kicking up dust from the ground, and catapulted herself onto a lower rung of the tightrope's ladder. She glanced upwards at him, smiling enigmatically, before leaping from the rung—again with the aid of her breath—and landing lightly and gracefully on a support beam a short distance away.

Aang couldn't believe his eyes, still hanging in mid-air and staring down at the scene below him. It took him several seconds to even form the thought. _She's an airbender. _

_**An **__**airbender!**_

Leela was leaping from post to post now, still a good twenty feet above the scattered audience, who barely took notice of her. She skipped buoyantly through the air, her feet barely touching each beam.

"Wait!" he called after her; Aang let his legs relax, and he too fell from the trapeze bar and manipulated the air with his breath to break his fall. He followed her lead, leaping first from the trapeze ladder to a nearby post. "Wait, where are you going? _Leela!_"

Leela was still far ahead of him, and had jumped up to an open swatch of the tent's fabric. She crouched precariously on it, and now in her hands held something that looked like a long, wooden staff.

Aang doubled his efforts to keep up. "_Wait!_" He could hear Katara yelling after him, but he didn't turn around.

Leela turned to give him one last smile, and dove out of the tent. When he was close enough, Aang could see she'd opened a glider and was now airborne, gaining altitude as she cruised high above the bustle of the small town's activities. He had a terrible urge to follow her, to dive out of the tent even without his own glider and chase after her; he was only stopped by the sound of Katara calling to him again from the floor of the circus arena.

"_Aang!_" She waved frantically at him from the ground. "_Come on!_ We have to go—why are you just sitting up there?"

He looked out the tent flap—then back down at Katara, and then outside again—but ultimately Katara's pull was greater, and he leapt reluctantly down to the floor of the circus tent to join her.

-o-

-o-

By the time Aang, Katara, Sokka and Teo reached the melee in the marketplace, it was a full-force disaster.

A crowd had gathered at the outskirts of the scene—most likely the crowd that had formerly been watching the circus performances—and in the midst of it, still fighting off the remaining Fire Nation soldiers, were Zuko and Toph. The Duke and Haru were doing a part as well, helping to tie up the officers who had met defeat at the hands of the small group.

Katara wormed her way through the onlookers into the thick of it. "What—_what is this?_" she demanded upon sight, her hands spread out before her. "Who started this?!"

Still in his Wang Fire disguise, Sokka stroked his fake beard thoughtfully as he regarded the fallen Fire Nation soldiers, most of them piled in a semi-conscious heap. "I dunno, but I think we can safely make the call on who _ended_ it."

Haru saw them and ran toward them. "We don't have much more time," he said breathlessly, "there's supposedly another garrison of soldiers coming from a nearby village."

"Get the supplies and food," Katara ordered sternly; and even Aang looked surprised at the tone of her voice. "We've already blown our cover as benders—we're getting out of here _now_ before someone realizes who Aang is, and before Azula shows up."

The last of the soldiers vanquished, Zuko straightened and addressed the crowd of spectators, still holding his twin broadswords. "Listen up, everybody!" he called out loudly. "You have a choice! You don't have to put up with the Fire Nation's bullying, and their stifling rules and penalties. _You_ should be your own lawgivers! _You_ determine what your rewards or punishments should be!"

Among them there were hurried whispers. _That's the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation! That's Zuko, son of Firelord Ozai!_ The crowd was dazzled as they realized the identity of the young man who'd entertained them only hours ago with fire-breathing tricks under the main circus tent.

Katara watched as Zuko delivered his speech, her mouth dropped open in astonishment.

"The Fire Nation has taken away your right to govern yourselves, but they can't take away your courage to fight back. Don't let anyone tell you how you should live your lives!" His last words were met with cheers.

She saw Haru looking at her out of the corner of her eye, and Katara knew what he was thinking; he was remembering the words she'd delivered on the Fire Navy coal-mining ship, in front of the earthbending prisoners, to rally them so long ago. It seemed like ages ago to her, but she clearly recalled having appealed to the prisoners' collective courage. _And now Zuko was doing the same thing. _

Her blood felt as though it were boiling.

The crowd began to disperse, talking excitedly amongst each other. He had already turned toward the group to rejoin them and gather the groceries and supplies to leave, but Zuko was stopped dead in his tracks by Katara standing before him, pointing an accusatory finger.

"_You_ did this!" she seethed. "You took it upon yourself to disrupt our plans and start a fight, just so you could act high and mighty as if you were the town's savior or something!" He stood motionless before her, his jaw slack, shock rendering him speechless.

Toph and Haru looked confused. The Duke cringed, and began uncertainly, "Um…Katara…"

"What you're forgetting is that this crusade just isn't about _you_, Zuko—this is about _all of us_, and keeping all of us safe! You're just as reckless as you always were, never thinking for a minute about anyone else's plans or safety but your own! _You never think anything through!_ It's just like you, and how selfish you are, that you'd put everyone in danger just to preserve your stupid pride!"

"You think I did this for my pride, then?" he demanded lividly, his cheeks flushed. "You really think I'd start a fight just to achieve some kind of glory in these peoples' eyes? If _that's_ what you think of me, Katara, then you don't know me like you think you do_." _He sheathed his swords at his back.

She snorted and crossed her arms over her chest.

He held out his hand to the Duke, who came to his side obediently; Zuko knelt down on one knee and presented him with his back, and the boy climbed on, holding onto the Fire Prince's shoulders. Zuko stood, turning to face her once more.

"You think that _you're_ the only one who feels responsible? You think _you're_ the only one who cares about what happens to them?" He nudged his head to the side, toward Aang and Teo and the others.

"You don't know _anything_." He seized a couple of knapsacks by the strings, careful to keep the Duke's legs over his arms, on his way out of the marketplace. The young boy clung to his back and turned his head to the side, to give her one last look.

"I don't know what's going on here, but," Sokka started tremulously, "we'd better get moving, before the remaining garrison shows up." The rest of the group picked up their supplies and headed out. Katara was left standing alone, her fists at her sides, biting her lip.

"Katara, Aang, come on!"

She turned to follow her brother's voice, noting to herself that Aang too was still standing in the middle of the marketplace, his gaze fixed far away on the horizon.

-o-

-o-

The walk back to the group's camp—and back to Appa—was a long, winding pathway back to the forest. Their moods were somber; each one of them seemed lost in his or her own thoughts.

Zuko carried the Duke piggyback, keeping his distance from the other members. The young boy tried to keep his nose from bumping into the scabbard containing the dual broadswords in front of his face.

"I'm sorry, Zuko," came a meek whisper in his ear suddenly, and Zuko gave a light shrug.

"Don't apologize. I'm all right."

"No," the Duke continued, "I'm sorry…for getting you in trouble, and especially with Katara. You were just trying to help me." He ducked his head.

"What happened, back there?" Zuko asked quietly. "Why did you feel the need to take something?"

The boy shifted uneasily against his back. "I guess it's a bad habit of mine," he replied, after a momentary pause. There was humility and guilt in his voice. "Pipsqueak n' I used to have to steal all the time just to get by—to eat, get clothing, everything. That was how we were picked up by Aang's group—we were stealing from them." He sighed. "I guess…I guess I don't know any better."

Zuko nodded shortly in response, his eyes on the ground before him. "I understand. My uncle and I went through the same thing. For a while we were on the run together, and we had nothing. I resorted to stealing stuff instead of begging for money, thinking that asking strangers for charity was less honorable." He looked up, ahead of him. "Now I know that I was wrong in thinking that. It was better to do neither of those, and to try to make an honest living as best you could, doing something you're good at."

"I'm not very good at anything, though," the Duke replied, and Zuko could hear the faint wobble in his voice.

"Sure you are." He turned his head so the Duke could see him smile. "You made a lot of people laugh today at the circus. I'd say that's definitely something you're good at." He felt the boy's grin against the back of his neck.

"And anyway," Zuko continued, looking back ahead, "you don't need to worry about being good at providing for yourself right now. You're too young, and besides, we'll look out for you to make sure you have what you need. That's what friends do, they take care of each other—such as giving someone your share of nuts when they're hungry, right?"

A short laugh. "That's true."

A moment went by in companionable silence, before the Duke added, "That's what Jet used to do, too."

Zuko almost stopped in his tracks, but caught himself just in time. "Jet?"

"Yeah. He was the leader of our group. He took care of me an' Pipsqueak, and made sure Pipsqueak had enough lychee nuts to eat, and that we were happy." Zuko could almost hear the faint smile in the boy's words. "He did some bad things sometimes, things he wasn't supposed to, but…he looked out for us." A pause. "I miss that about him."

Zuko didn't ask what had happened to the freedom fighter who had nearly cost himself and Iroh _their_ freedom, while in Ba Sing Se. He had a feeling it couldn't have ended well for such a tumultuous person—but obviously there was a side to Jet that he hadn't known, to hear the Duke tell it. "I'm glad he took care of you, then," he commented neutrally.

"Yeah." The Duke didn't seem to dwell on what misfortunes had happened to his friend. "You're a lot like him, actually," he continued amiably.

The firebender unwittingly stiffened. "_I'm_ like _him?_"

"Yeah! For one thing, you're really good at swords, like he was. Oh, and you're always fighting with Katara."

Zuko wanted to laugh; at the same time, he felt a spike of something that tasted indistinctly of annoyance and possessiveness shoot through him. He wasn't the only one? Jet fought with her, too? What did they fight about? He found himself vaguely wondering if Katara had been as abrasive and ruthlessly tyrannical to Jet as she had been to himself.

"Katara had a thing for Jet, you know," the Duke went on conversationally, and Zuko felt his chest inexplicably tightening. "She really, really liked him. I think they kissed."

Oh. _Apparently not,_ he thought. This was awkward; he felt privy to information that shouldn't have been his. Katara would want it kept secret. "….Oh." When the Duke was quiet for a moment, he asked, "So…then what?"

"Hm?"

"What happened, then, between them?" Zuko's curiosity was getting the better of him.

"Oh, nothing," the Duke replied casually. "She froze him to a tree, after that, because he tried to hurt some people." He paused, as though he was remembering. "I don't really know what happened between them after that, but I think she never really forgave him. That was why they fought a lot when they were in Ba Sing Se."

"I see." For Zuko it explained a little part, just a small fragment, of her personality—like one of many missing pieces in an empty puzzle.

"It took us like four hours to thaw him out that day," the Duke noted, with a trace of admiration. "He was stuck solid."

The Fire Prince's lips quirked. "I can just imagine."

-o-

-o-

Katara looked at her moonlit reflection in the bowl of water she'd collected and purified from the stream. Her red makeup was still on, but slightly smudged—around the eyes, and on her chin, right below her lips; the gold crescent moon between her dark brows was now a bright yellow blob on her forehead. She looked like a blurred version of the Painted Lady, as if someone were squinting their eyes at her.

She bent the water up into her hands and mixed it with soap, and proceeded to cleanse her face. She had just finished rinsing when she heard footfalls behind her, and then a soft, uncertain voice. "Um…Katara?"

It was the Duke. She turned to look up at him expectantly, still kneeling by the small stream. He had wiped off his clown makeup and changed into his normal clothing, but he still seemed nervous and uncomfortable, and removed his helmet as he spoke to her. "I just wanted to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"It's about Zuko." She blinked in surprise. "He—I just wanted to let you know that it wasn't him who started the fight in the marketplace. It was me."

Katara was shocked. "_You?_ But—"

"I stole something," he said. "Zuko was just protecting me from the soldiers who caught me doing it. They wanted to throw me in jail for it." He bowed his head, and over it, her eyes softened. "It's my fault. I'm sorry."

"Oh." She was dumbfounded and contrite, and ducked her own head in realization. _Great, Katara; you are a certifiable, world-class __**idiot**__, and even an eight-year-old can see it._ "Oh."

"You're not…mad at me, are you?" he asked fearfully, and she quickly gave a short laugh as she shook her head at him, and reached up to envelop him in a hug.

"No, no—I'm not." She sighed, softly. "I'm sorry, too. I jumped to conclusions about what happened out there." She released him and looked at him, a pensive expression on her face. "And…I should apologize to someone else, as well." She tousled his dark hair gently, her motherly concern returning. "You're okay, after all that happened today—aren't you?" she asked him. He nodded.

Katara watched his eyes for a long moment before finally rising to her feet. She laid one last hand on his head. "Thank you for telling me, Duke." She headed back to the campsite, her gossamer white costume billowing gently in the night breeze.

The boy watched her go, a relieved and slightly mischievous smile playing across his face.

-o-

-o-

She found him by a lake underneath the moonlight, a distance away from the group's camp, and reflected momentarily with interest how both of them seemed always to be drawn to bodies of water after nightfall. For her, it was not so strange; for a firebender, it was certainly odd.

He was practicing the strange moves she'd caught him doing several nights before—slow, fluidic movements that looked as though they were more waterbending than anything else. But strangely, they suited him. Instead of aggressive, forceful motions, the postures he practiced made him seem calmer, more peaceful. As she drew closer, her curiosity piquing, she could hear his rhythmic breathing that accompanied them.

Finally he spoke, surprising her. "You shouldn't be sneaking up on people like that…especially not in that costume, at night." He was still turned away; she realized he must have seen her approaching much earlier.

Katara put her hands on her hips, playing along, she thought, with his ruse. "Why is that? Because I look like a spirit, or something? The Painted Lady, perhaps?"

Zuko stilled in his last pose—feet apart, arms still reaching to the sky—and turned only his head. He looked her once over quickly, her diaphanous outfit backlit by the light of the moon, and she detected a small quirking of his lips. "Not exactly," he ventured, after a small pause. She looked down at herself and hesitantly crossed her arms over her chest.

"Listen, Zuko…" she began hesitantly, "I…I want to apologize."

"For what?" Calmly, he resumed his tranquil, flowing movements.

"For…what I said to you today, in the marketplace." She paused, slightly confused that she had to explain. "…I had no right to say those things to you."

"Maybe you were right. Maybe I was just after attention and glory."

"No!" He stopped, turned to look at her vehement outburst. Katara ducked her head in consternation and gentled her tone once more. Clearly he wasn't used to how reactive she was; _ironic, considering how quick to anger he can be, himself._ "I know—I know you didn't do it because of that. The Duke told me…he told me you were protecting him, and that was why you started the fight." He waited.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have yelled at you the way I did."

After a beat, Zuko lowered his own head. "It's all right." He met her eyes again, from underneath the long locks of his dark hair. "You're forgiven."

One apology didn't seem to be enough; suddenly the floodgates were opened, and her words poured forth without any sign of halting. "And I'm sorry for what I said earlier today, before we left for the circus, as well..."

"Which part?"

Katara's mouth dropped open. "What?"

"Nevermind." She belatedly realized he was trying to make a joke of it. "I said, it's all right. Don't worry about it." He was closing himself off again; she could feel the wall between them reasserting itself on both sides.

But before it happened, she had one last reparation to make. "And…I'm sorry for what I did, on the night you joined us." When he looked at her in confusion, she continued, "…For bending your blood. It was wrong, I shouldn't have done it…I promised myself I wasn't going to do it again…"

"_Katara._" She stopped talking at the paralyzing effect of her name on his lips. Zuko was looking at her with earnest reproach. "Don't apologize for that. It was an instinctive reaction, one you didn't even think about—you did it because you thought Aang was in danger. I don't fault you for it." She found herself wanting to believe him with an intensity that surprised even her.

_I'm just trying to keep the group together. I'm just trying to maintain unity. I just… _

She nodded, lamely. "I just wanted to let you know…" she swallowed, correcting herself, "…I swear to you that I won't do it to you, ever again."

This time it was his turn to nod. "I understand." His voice had grown very soft and small in the surrounding darkness, and she sensed in that moment that an unspoken message had passed between them. A code had been deciphered, received and acknowledged.

Katara held his gaze for what seemed like minutes stretching into hours. "I should…"

"Yeah."

She turned to leave without another word, to be alone with her thoughts. Suddenly there were too many of them in her head, and she welcomed their attempts to distract her from her racing blood and hammering heart.

-o-

-o-

He had expected another confrontation that night, but not like this. _That went better than I thought possible_, Zuko admitted to himself. She was full of surprises, this waterbender; unpredictable. Aang hadn't exaggerated.

And he hadn't been deserving of her trust immediately, he knew—he knew going into it that the path would be long, and convoluted, and painstaking. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd won some small concession from her, that he'd secured some kernel of understanding in her eyes.

He turned back to the lake, its surface glinting in the moonlight, and something his uncle had said about water when he was a small child came to him. _Water is changeable, fluid. It twists and turns in ways that are not linear, and that do not make sense. You cannot hope to predict water's movement and whims—you can only find yourself being tugged along for the ride._

Zuko had the distinct feeling that the ride was about to get bumpier.

* * *


	7. pillar of truth

_______________________________

_Three things cannot be long hidden; the sun, the moon, and the truth. _

—Siddhartha

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-**chapter 7**-

**- pillar of truth -**

-o-

-o-

High above the Earth Kingdom, the small band of renegade teens flew on their air bison through the expanse of sky. Beside them, cruising in his repaired glider, Teo kept a steady pace with Appa. He soared faster toward the great beast's head, appearing in the corner of Aang's vision and waving as he did; however the young monk was deeply absorbed with his own thoughts, and didn't seem to notice.

Katara crawled up to the front of the saddle, looking down the short distance to where Aang sat at the reins. She folded her arms over the saddle's horn and rested her chin upon them. "Aang…is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah." His reply was short. "I'm fine."

"It doesn't sound like it." She softened her voice, looking at him with concern. "…Do you want to talk about it?"

He sighed and the corners of his mouth turned down, as though he were considering just how much to tell her. "I don't know."

"You're anxious about finding the airbenders, aren't you," Katara inserted gently, and his eyes went wide. "I figured you were. Aang, we're _going_ to find them; don't worry."

This time his brows knit in consternation. "That's the thing—we already _have_." He corrected himself, "Or at least, _I_ have."

"…What?"

"_Leela_," he answered abruptly, irritation in his voice. "Leela was an airbender."

"That girl you performed with?" she sputtered. "But—but that's _great!_ There _were_ survivors, after all! You've—" Her voice trailed off. "Wait, I…I don't understand." She looked at him carefully, and he shut down his features once more, hiding his expression from her view. "You knew she was an airbender and you didn't tell me? Why didn't you tell any of u—"

"Does it matter?" he snapped back, obviously angered; she recoiled at the tone his voice took. "We were too busy anyway, dealing with Zuko and Toph's fight in the marketplace. Now she's gone, and I don't know where she went to."

Katara looked stricken. "But we can always turn back—"

"_No._" Aang was firm. "We're sticking with the original plan. We're going to New Ozai. That's where the scrolls said the airbenders would be." He stared straight in front of him at the cloudless sky ahead. She watched him silently, not comprehending his sudden bad mood.

"Aang," Sokka called out from the back of the saddle, "we'd better set Appa down somewhere, soon. I can tell from the landmarks that we're close to the Cave, and remember how many soldiers were stationed by it, last time? Appa almost got flambé'd!"

Zuko leaned forward and inserted himself into the conversation. His single dark brow was furrowed with worry. "How exactly are you guys planning on getting around the Fire Nation troops on the outskirts of the city? They're not just going to let you pass, you know."

"_I know that_," Aang replied testily, causing the firebender to frown. Katara turned to enlighten him and hopefully spare Aang from Zuko's wrath.

"There's a cave down below, where we can pass through the mountain undetected by the Fire Nation," she explained to him calmly. "It shouldn't take us too much time, and it's a safe route to the entrance of the city."

Zuko ducked his head in acknowledgement, but turned his head to gaze behind him at the Duke and Toph before meeting Katara's eyes again. "Are you sure it's safe?" he asked in a lower tone.

"It's a heck of a lot safer than trying to navigate a flying bison through a field of firebenders, _that's_ for sure," Sokka piped up helpfully from the back of the saddle. Katara looked between both boys and then once more over at Aang, thoughtfully.

-o-

-o-

They landed Appa under the cover of trees just beyond the soldiers' border, and the band of kids dismounted and began walking. After what seemed like eons, they stopped at an impasse on the edge of the forest faced with the cave's bedrock wall before them, with the option to go in either direction to find the elusive entrance.

Sokka was at the forefront of the group, inspecting rocks and other landmarks carefully. "_That_ boulder over there, over by _that_ tree, means we should go left," he said definitively, pointing.

The others blithely followed his lead—save Katara, who had her hands at her hips. "Hey, how do you even remember how to find the cave entrance, Sokka? It was a long time ago, and for you to remember such little things like where a boulder was next to a tree…"

He waved his arms about, flailing a bit. "Do you have any better ideas? I highly doubt _you_ were paying much attention to where we were going that day, and besides, as you know, I have an _excellent_ memory for fine details."

"Wow, really?" Haru breathed, visibly impressed; only Katara voiced her dissent, lips curled upward in a smirk.

"Oh, _please_. You don't even remember _Gran-gran's real name_."

Her brother frowned and folded his arms over his chest petulantly. "Of course I do, it's…it's…._Lily_." He gritted his teeth as she laughed with derision. "Lola?"

Katara looked as though she was ready to launch into a rant when she heard the blind earthbending girl let out a sharp gasp of pain. "…Toph?" she asked, concerned.

Sokka was still holding his chin, brows knitted. He sounded irritated. "I think I would _remember_ if our grandmother's name was something like '_Toph_'."

"No, you idiot." She went to the girl's side; Toph was seated on the ground, holding one small foot. "Toph, what is it?"

"I stepped on something sharp…with both feet, I think," she bemoaned, revealing cuts on the soles of each foot.

"Let me heal it," Katara offered, opening the cap on her waterskin, but she was surprised when the girl pushed it blindly away with her hands, muttering under her breath as she did.

"No, no...it's _okay_, Katara. They'll heal on their own."

The waterbender recoiled in shock. "But…but you just told me it hurts! Don't you want me to fix it?"

Toph pouted and lowered her voice so that the others couldn't hear. "Katara, you mean well, but…_stop mothering me_. I don't want to have to depend on you every time I get hurt. I have to learn to stand on my own two feet once in a while…_literally._" She seemed torn over the decision, but Katara could tell she wasn't going to give in without a fight. "So don't worry about it. Okay?"

And then Katara understood.

Speaking loudly enough for the others to hear, she said, "Toph, I think your feet are going to be just fine, with a little bit of time." She replaced the cap on her waterskin, and spoke lowly again for the earthbender's benefit. "You should at least wear something on them to protect them, while they heal."

Out of the corner of her eye, as she stood up, she saw Toph's hidden smile and heard her low words. "Thanks, Katara."

The group trudged onward, somewhat reluctant. Sokka lingered every few minutes during his trek to comment on the surrounding foliage—a bent tree limb here, a shrubbery there—and insisted he knew the correct way to the cave's mouth. But after they had passed the same distinguishable tree for the fourth time, Zuko finally put his foot down and turned to address the weary and frustrated youths.

"This is _insane_. We're never going to get anywhere by going in circles. I suggest we retrace our steps and find some higher altitude, where we can look down on the forest area to find which way is the correct path to get to the—"

He halted his speech, his eyes drifting over the others' heads to see Toph paused at the edge of the trees, standing completely still with an intensely concentrating look on her face. Zuko recognized the signs instantly. "Toph? What is it? Do you hear something?"

Aang stepped forward. "Is it the Fire Nation?"

Toph was motionless for another moment, but then her dark head began swaying slightly to and fro, from side to side, as if she were nodding in time to some unheard melody. "It's not coming from the ground; it's in the air. Don't you guys hear it?" she asked.

"Hear _what?_" Haru ventured, his face registering a hint of fear. The Duke crept closer to Teo's wheelchair, attempting to hide behind it.

She broke into a smile, still swaying her head. "…the music."

Now they all heard it—the lilting tones of a hand-strung pipa, a male voice singing slightly off-key over it. "_Don't fall in love with the traveling girl…she'll leave you broken, broken-hearrrr-ted…_"

Sokka broke into a grin as recognition dawned in the others' eyes. "Hey! I know those guys! "

"It's Chong and the Nomads!" Katara announced, her face spreading into a beaming smile just as the traveling musical band appeared through the trees and into the clearing ahead of them.

"Who and the what…?" Zuko asked quietly, confused.

Chong saw them and halted mid-song lyric. "Heyyyy," he drawled, "well, if it isn't little Master Arrowhead and his traveling friends! How goes it, fellow Cave Seekers? You remember my wife, Lily, and my buddy Moku here—"

"_Chong!_" Sokka cried, and launched himself dramatically at the scruffy nomad. "It's like…so good to see you, man!"

Chong looked surprised, but returned the spontaneous embrace, smiling and laughing. "Sokka, my man, it's good to see you, too!" He pulled back and held the boy affectionately by the shoulders. "You haven't been letting your plans get in the way of your journey, have you, my friend?"

Sokka sniffled with emotion even as he shook his head, grinning and teary-eyed. "_No!_"

Katara stepped up to hug Lily and made the introductions to the newer members of the group, while Aang cautiously approached.

"Hey Chong," the airbender said, nonchalant. "We certainly didn't expect to see you here."

"Why is that, Little Arrowhead?"

"Well, for one thing—if you're Nomads, why are you still wandering around this same area? Shouldn't you be…someplace else?" He held up his hands in supplication.

Chong looked briefly confused, and Lily spoke up beside him. "But we _are_ someplace else. We've traveled long and far these past couple of months, since we last saw you."

"That's right, we have," Chong piped up, waving his hand in a relaxed fashion. "We go wherever the wind takes us. In fact, it was just recently we ended up here…it's kinda weird that the Fire Nation has this cave here that looks so much like the one near Omashu, isn't it?"

The group was dead silent. Momo, sitting atop Appa, cocked his head and warbled in confusion.

Zuko's good eye twitched. "Did—did you just say…'Fire Nation'?"

"Yeah, man, we're in the Fire Nation! Didn't you know?" Chong lowered his enthusiastic voice to an exaggerated whisper and spoke around the back of his hand. "Don't be talking too loud now, though, otherwise we might attract the deadly and fierce _komodo chicken._"

Sokka's palm met his forehead with a loud smack.

"I'm serious, it has _reall_y large talons," Chong went on insistently.

Aang seemed on the verge of losing it. "We're _not in_ the Fire Nation," he nearly yelled, his young face scrunched up in disapproval. He pointed up toward the wall of the cave. "This cave _**is**_ the cave near Omashu!"

Chong squinted into the distance, looking skeptical. "…Are you sure?"

"Yes, we're sure." Zuko's reply was growling in nature. "Trust me, I used to live there."

"Really?" Chong broke out into a dazed smile despite his confusion, and saluted vigorously. "_Flameo_, good Hotman!" Zuko visibly deflated.

"We flew here _from _the Fire Nation," Katara explained, firmly but with a hint of gentleness. She glanced sternly over at Aang as though to calm him before continuing. "And we need to find a way into the Cave of the Two Lovers, as soon as possible, so that we can get into Omas—New Ozai, undetected."

"But wasn't it just a few months since you were last there?" Lily asked them. She had obviously accepted the fact much easier than her husband; Chong was scratching his head and drawing an invisible map in the air with his fingers, mentally retracing his steps. "Why are you going back?"

"We're looking for my people," Aang answered, his tone subdued. "We're looking for the Air Nomads."

Moku looked on in curiosity. "Air Nomads? Heyyy…._we're_ nomads!"

"…Yeah, we've had this discussion before," Sokka asserted flatly, having successfully resisted smacking his forehead again. "Sorry, but you're not the Nomads we're thinking of. No offense."

Chong shook his head, obviously blindsided by the entire thing. "This is wrong, all wrong. I could have sworn we were in the Fire Nation. I'm going to have to do some serious meditating on all this, man."

The kids blinked. "Um," Katara started, "that's fine that you need to meditate, but…can't you do it after you've shown us the way into the cave, once more?"

"No way, little Waterbaby. I need some perspective on the whole thing. And the only way I'm gonna get _that_, is if I'm on some moksha weed." He took something out of the pocket of his pants—a small cloth sack, tied at the end.

"…What's that?" Katara asked, slightly concerned. The other kids looked on with interest.

"Oh, good idea," Moku commented, setting down his carrying pack to fish something out of it as Lily did the same.

"Moksha weed?" Sokka inquired.

"Yeah!" Chong replied amiably. "You burn it and inhale the smoke from it, and it gives you _great wisdom_ about your life, and offers you answers to the problems you face."

"Really?"

"I don't know about this, Sokka," Zuko cautioned, frowning slightly. "We have something in the Fire Nation like this too, only it's called 'salamander root'. You grind it up and smoke it, and you get the same effects…but I think it's bad for you if you smoke too much of it—"

"Nonsense, my single-eye friend," Chong asserted, and Zuko's good eye blazed golden with irritation. As the nomad spoke, he sat down lotus-style on the ground and took several small, paper-rolled items out of the cloth sack. He began rubbing sticks for a small fire. "Moksha weed isn't bad for you at all. It expands your mind in ways you've never imagined. It helps you discover the truth of any situation. People only tell you it's bad for you, so that you don't do it and there's more for them. It's a _conspiracy_, man."

"…_Right_." Zuko rolled his eyes.

Sokka rubbed the sparse facial hair struggling to grow on his chin, and sat down beside Chong. "I might want to try this out, just from a purely experimental standpoint," he said. Toph, Aang, Haru and Teo inched closer as well. Moku and Lily were unpacking something that resembled a dark cake from their knapsacks.

Katara was less impressed. She folded her arms across her midsection. "Sokka—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Katara; 'maybe this isn't such a good idea'. Zuko beat you to your wet blanket-ness, by the way." Sokka crossed his arms stubbornly; as if by mirror image, Zuko did the same in return. "I'm still going to try it."

Toph sat down beside him. "I am, too."

"T-_Toph!_" Katara sputtered. "You're too young to be doing that!"

"Oh get over it already, Miss Fussybritches." Katara set her jaw in annoyance.

Out of her field of view, Zuko mouthed the word silently in Sokka's direction, as though he couldn't believe his ears: _Fussybritches?_ Sokka nodded and rolled his eyes, mouthing back with solemnity, _oh yes, you have no idea_.

Aang sat down beside the others on the ground. "The monks used to talk sometimes about certain herbs that gave them spiritual enlightenment," he said to Chong, a trace of wonder and curiosity in his voice. "But are you sure it's safe?"

"Most definitely, Master Arrowhead," the nomad jovially replied. He had finally started a small fire, and fed it with twigs to sustain it. "I guarantee it is one of the few things in this world that _won_'_t_ harm you." His features changed to resemble a hint of fear. "Not like those komodo chickens, I tell you…"

His encouragement had obviously affected the other members of the group, and Haru and Teo went to the small gathering by the fire as well. Only the Duke stayed behind, inching himself protectively inbetween Zuko and Katara where they stood.

"I don't like this," Katara breathed nervously, just out of earshot of the rest; Zuko glanced sideways at her, barely nodding his own assent before returning a whisper.

"I don't like it, either. But I've heard that sometimes people who take this stuff aren't affected the first time they try it. So maybe we have nothing to worry abou—"

"And just so you know," Chong was saying, "this is only the good quality stuff, _super potent_—so you're almost guaranteed to have a mind-altering experience." Both Zuko and Katara cringed.

Chong reached for one of the small paper-wrapped cylinders containing the moksha weed and lit the end of it in the fire, taking a long, slow drag on it as he did. Smoke drifted from the corners of his lips as he spoke, before he exhaled the rest completely in a gush of breath. "Okay! Soooo…who wants a puff, first?" When no one moved, Haru sat forward and took the hand-rolled joint, looking at it curiously before putting it to his lips and inhaling. The kids watched him with wide eyes; after another moment he began coughing loudly, exhaling smoke.

"There ya go," Chong coaxed. "Next?"

Sokka reached for it. "Hand it over, Fu Manchu!"

"Okay, that does it!" Katara fumed. "I may not be able to change your minds about doing this, but that doesn't mean I approve, and I'm certainly _not_ going to take part in it, myself!" She crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest.

Lily got to her feet and approached her from where she and Moku were snacking on what looked to be some kind of dark, decadent pastry. "Katara, would you prefer to try some of our tasty homemade cake, instead?"

Katara blinked, her anger slightly deflated. "Well, I guess so. I _am_ kinda hungry." She looked at it eagerly as Lily offered her a slice. "Oooh, it smells delicious." She brought it to her mouth, prepared to bite into it.

Zuko grimaced, and his good eye widened with concern. "Umm, Katara, I don't think you want to—"

"...Why not?" Defiantly she took a huge bite and then spoke to him around a mouthful of cake, her eyes lighting up with pleasure as she chewed. "Mmmm, Sshuuko, 'ssh rry goodth!"

"It's our _special_ cake," Moku beamed with emphasis. Zuko gave in to the undeniable urge to slap himself in the forehead.

Seated in the circle on the forest floor, Sokka exhaled and coughed violently. His blue eyes teared. "That's some harsh stuff." He passed the paper-wrapped weed to Toph next to him, and directed his question to Chong. "So when do we start feeling the effects?"

"Soon, my man, soon." Chong was busily wrapping more moksha weed. "Try to be patient; it's better to let it sneak up on you, all puma-fox–like, and then when you're least expecting it—_bam!_" He smacked his fist into his other palm for emphasis, and the kids jumped.

Sokka coughed again. "W-wait, why does it go '_bam_'?" he asked a bit fearfully, as Toph inhaled from the cigarette and exhaled slowly into the air.

Zuko watched with a fascination bordering on horror as Katara hungrily accepted another piece of 'special cake' from Lily, devouring it within minutes. Finally he grumbled and made his way over to the circle and sat down, crossing his arms about his chest as he did. Sokka was quick to forget his concern with Chong's sound effects and reached over to slap the Fire Prince heartily on the back. "_Heyyyy_, look who decided to join the cool kids!"

Zuko glanced at Katara—still unknowingly inhaling the proffered weed-laced cake with rapid efficiency—and turned back to scowl in the direction of the cigarette. "Just pass the damn thing over here, already."

-o-

-o-

Ten minutes passed.

Sokka giggled.

"Your _hair_, Zuko," he snickered, barely able to contain his laughter. "_Look at your hair!_"

"_What!_" The firebender smoothed down his unruly locks self-consciously, bristling with indignation as he did. "Stop talking about it. There's nothing wrong with it!"

"But you can't see it you know," Sokka gasped, gibbering nonsensically, "you can't see your own hair, Zuko, _look_ at it, oh my sea stars it's _crazy_…"

Toph was smacking her lips and sticking out her tongue, grimacing. "Does anyone else feel like their mouth is sticky…like you've been licking a koala-sheep or something?"

Teo turned to her, eyeing her with fuzzy concern. "…You haven't actually been _doing_ that, have you?"

Aang raised his hand. "I screamed into a koala-sheep, once," he offered helpfully.

-o-

-o-

Ten more minutes passed.

"Look," Toph asserted, "watch, I'll do it again." She punched the air directly in front of her with her fists, at the roaring fire around which the rest of the group huddled. The flame flickered just barely from air displacement. "Did you see that? Did you see? I felt it. I felt it move!"

"You guys," Haru exclaimed with wondrous excitement, "it's true! _Toph's a firebender!_"

Teo gasped with awed wonderment, and Chong applauded. "Whoo, that's wonderful, little earth-and-fire girl!" Toph stood proudly with her hands at her hips.

"Pretty soon, _I'll_ be able to bend lightning," she boasted. "Then Hotpants can take a backseat as a firebending tutor to a _real_ mast—"

She was cut off by Sokka crashing into her from behind. "—_OW! _Sokka, what the—"

"Ssshhh." He waved her off with an impatient whisper. "Sorry, thought you were a little farther away. Don't mind me, I'm just loungin' around here in the Spirit World." He tilted his head and looked at her more closely, squinting. "Are people supposed to be shorter in the Spirit World than they are, normally?"

Toph bristled and wrinkled her nose. "The what? …You're _not in_ the Spirit World, Sokka!"

"Yes I am!" he insisted. "You shouldn't even be able to see me!"

"Are you _stupid_ or something?"

Sokka pointed an accusatory finger at her, simultaneously jerking a thumb backwards at the empty space behind him. "Hey, I'm warning you—_don't_ make the giant panda angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry!"

Aang sat, silently and wordlessly staring into the fire. Zuko wondered briefly what the young monk was thinking of with such a serious and solemn expression—_perhaps he's meditating_, he thought, not knowing what the Air Nomads would do in such a situation—but soon enough the Fire Prince found himself entranced with something else entirely, a short distance away from the group's campfire.

He watched as Katara waved her arms slowly through the air, as if she were conducting a silent orchestra that only she could hear, her mouth open in what looked like intense concentration. Zuko could see the pearly-white gleam of her teeth and the tip of her pink tongue as it flickered and poked at the corners of her lips in her absorbed focus. He couldn't tear his eyes away. These were moves he wanted to learn from her, _had_ to learn from her…if only she weren't so threatened by him.

"What are you doing?" he whispered to her quietly, from where he sat on the forest floor after his stealthy approach.

Katara looked back at him over her shoulder, arms poised in midair. He noticed her blue eyes had taken on a glassy sheen. "I'm bending water vapors in the air."

He didn't see anything, even as his good eye squinted in scrutiny, but he took her word for it. "…What does it…feel like?"

She crossed the few steps and sat down on the ground next to him, which he hadn't expected. In her hands she still played with invisible threads of water, barely condensed from the air around her; her fingers' movements reminded him of someone playing with the hot-spun, sticky lemongrass sugar candy he'd been fond of as a child.

"It feels," she began hesitantly, her eyes staring off into empty space, "like I'm giving in to its rhythm, following its pathway. Respecting it." She lowered her eyes, her hands still plucking the air, and he watched raptly. "I guide it a little bit, but it does most of the work itself. I just…give in to it. I let it go through me."

"Through you," he repeated, mostly to himself. He remembered the feeling of the electricity from Ozai's lightning coursing through his veins, pooling tightly and crackling in his stomach. Her description fit what Iroh had tried to teach him, and the words he'd remembered. _There is energy all around us. If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it._

Suddenly as Zuko continued watching her hands, he thought he could see the water vapors she was guiding—they looked like thin wisps of smoke in the air, ethereal and fragile. He stared, transfixed, and tried to form coherent thoughts as the vapors coalesced to form a translucent outline of Iroh's face.

"Uncle…" He hadn't realized he'd said the name aloud.

"What?"

Just as abruptly, it was gone. Zuko sighed. "Nothing," he answered quietly. He could sense that she continued to look searchingly at him.

Chong was waving them over to where they'd strayed from the fireside. "Everyone gather 'round," he called, and Lily and Moku joined them as they resumed places in the group's circle.

"You all have partaken of the moksha weed," Chong continued, despite Katara's indignant and sputtering protest that she hadn't smoked anything, "and by now you should be feeling the enlightenment it's giving you. It's helping to open you up to the universe and its cosmic energy, and part of that opening up is telling the truth, being honest about yourself and the people around you."

He motioned to everyone in the circle. "Each one of us should go around in the circle and say something truthful to the person next to them." He grinned and put a hand to his chest. "I'll start."

He turned to the Water Tribe boy seated beside him. "Sokka," he began earnestly, looking into the other's eyes and placing a comforting hand on his back, "you are one of the smartest people I've ever known, man. I mean that. You are like…_so intelligent_, and deep, and stuff."

Sokka's lower lip trembled; even in his intoxicated state, Zuko had to bite his lip to refrain from chuckling.

"Thanks, man," he managed, his voice quavering, before his face crumpled and he reached forward to throw his arms around the nomad, wailing. "_I love you, man!_"

Chong laughed, and Toph coughed discreetly.

Sokka composed himself and pulled away, finally turning to Toph on his other side. He cleared his throat with importance. "Toph," he began in a solemn tone, and her face changed at his address, taking on a slight blush in her cheeks. "You are not only the strongest girl in the entire Earth Kingdom, but…you're also the most terrifying."

The earthbender digested his words for a moment, as if she were weighing the compliment. Finally she broke into an enormous smile and socked him hard in the arm, grinning as he yelped accordingly.

"Haru," she said, turning her head to her other side, "I won't tell you to shave that thing off, because Sokka seems to like it now, and even wants to grow his own…but just know that we make fun of you a lot, and not just to your face. We do it behind your back, too."

Haru paled beside her underneath his facial hair, but Toph was smiling and relaxed. "But you know, you're still a good guy, anyway." She grinned. "Ahhh, I love truthtelling."

Haru turned uncertainly to the opposite end of the circle, and looked at the surprised waterbender across from him. "Um, Katara, you're really…"

"_Teo_," the boy beside him corrected, with a tone of impatience.

A confused pause, as Haru turned to look beside him. "…Oh…right. Teo, um…you make really interesting things. Like your dad does."

Teo stared at him with a quizzical expression. "Thanks…I think," he responded flatly.

He turned to the person beside him, and took a deep breath. "Listen, Aang, I've…I've had something on my mind recently. I know there's probably a good and complicated reason for this, but…I can't help but wonder why you didn't face down the Fire Lord in the Avatar State, on the Day of Black Sun." He looked gravely at the young monk, his confidence faltering. "You know that my dad is in prison in the Fire Nation, and…well, I'm really worried about him…and…"

"It wasn't the _right time_," Aang barked shortly. The entire circle around the fire grew quiet and still.

Zuko shifted with unease, and a surprisingly lucid thought came to him. _Could Aang have fought Ozai at all, after the eclipse? Was he capable of it, then—is he even capable of it, now?_ He didn't know the answer to such questions—he didn't know if he wanted to. He had the feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

Finally realizing the impact of his words, the airbender ducked his head in an attempt to look more subdued. "…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound that way." Teo's expression was still wounded, nevertheless. "It's something that's bothered me too, and…I'm working on it." He looked rather longingly over to where Katara sat three seats down, but she had turned away, her attention caught elsewhere.

He turned back to the Duke beside him. "I know you're even younger than I am," Aang said, almost reluctantly, "and I think it's really great that you want to fight alongside us. You're a lot braver than most adults give you credit for." The Duke ducked his head shyly at the praise and mumbled his thanks. Aang continued to watch Katara from underneath lowered brows.

The Duke turned to the Fire Prince at his left. "Zuko, you're…really good at swordfighting…oh! And piggyback rides! And you look out for me, and take care of me. I feel safe around you." Zuko felt the corners of his mouth turning upwards into a hesitant smile; he could feel Katara's interested stare on them both, but he tried not to pay attention to it.

"I think you're really talented and strong, and a good leader," the Duke went on. "Even if the others don't seem to think so." Just as quickly the smile was gone, replaced by a slightly irritated frown. "Okay, that was fun. Your turn, Zuko!"

As he turned his head slightly to his left to face Katara, Zuko had the distinct impression he was facing a military firebending squad. Now he could _definitely_ feel her expectant gaze on him; he felt it cascading over him like a wintry chill.

_Every time I've tried to say something to her, I've botched it up somehow_, he lamented to himself. _How do I say this? How do I ask her, the person who trusts me the least here out of anyone, to help me?_

"Katara," he began slowly, "I know you and I haven't always seen eye-to-eye on things in the past…"

She folded her arms across her chest, and regarded him with a quirk of her eyebrow. "Well_, that's_ true." The others snickered.

He continued, undaunted. "And…we didn't really start off on the right foot, once I had first joined the group…"

"For the record, Zuko," she snapped, and he felt his resolve sinking, "sneaking up behind someone in the dark, pinning their wrists so they can't bend and covering their mouth doesn't exactly inspire trust very easily." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aang's expression change.

Toph laughed out loud in his general direction. "You did _that?_ It's no wonder Fussybritches almost killed you!"

Another shocked pause fell over the group. Sokka looked over at Katara accusingly. "…You _almost_ _killed_ him?"

"I didn't!" she countered, hands flailing a bit in earnest panic. "I just—"

"His heart rate was all over the place," Toph offered gleefully, and again Zuko noted Aang's reaction; the Avatar was looking between him and Katara, visibly upset. "Whatever Katara was doing to him, it worked him up _quite a bit_—"

"What was she doing to you?" Haru seemed to suddenly take an uncanny interest in the subject matter.

Zuko felt his face quickly flushing. "It wasn't—"

The Duke glanced at him, concerned. "She really hurt you? Are you okay now, Zuko?"

"Yeah, you weren't permanently injured anywhere, were you?" Sokka inquired.

"He's _fine_," Katara snapped. Her features were livid with anger at having her secret exposed, and Zuko realized with a deflated spirit that asking such a thing of her _now_ was out of the question. He'd missed his brief window of opportunity; her features were hardening as she closed herself off from him, her eyes glazing over with a gleam of blue ice.

_Dammit._

She turned one last hard look on him. "…You were saying?" she punctuated, impatiently.

He rubbed the back of his head. "I was saying," he paused, "um…that I think you're…you're a good…cook." Zuko tried not to wince at how pathetic his words sounded to his own ears.

Katara folded her arms again over the chest of her tunic and turned away, mocha brows knitting together in a dark frown. He ducked his head, cowed.

"…All right," Chong began carefully, "good job, everyone. You did something very, very important today….you were honest with one another, even when it was sometimes hard to do so." He sighed happily as he got to his feet, stretching his limbs appreciatively, and Lily and Moku took their cue to rise as well. "Well, let's get going. Looks like we've gotta Secret Love Cave entrance to go find!"

Everyone else rose, but Teo was suddenly looking around. "Hey…where's Sokka?"

The Water Tribe boy poked his head up from where it had been buried in Moku's bag, crumbs of the dark sticky cake around his mouth. "Over here! Just getting some snacks in for the road," he sang happily. "Nobody told me they had _cake_ in the Spirit World!"

-o-

-o-

The sound of Chong's singing drowned out the feeble pipa notes as they walked.

"OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHhhhh, _when you're down and thrown by life, don't get squashed by all the strife…when your spirit's torn and broke, just sit back and take a toke….__**mokshaaa**__." _

He sang the song over and over as Zuko walked beside him, followed by most of the rest of the gang along with Appa and Momo, followed even further by Sokka happily dancing with Lily and Moku—which consisted of Sokka mainly whirling in place, arms waving wildly and attempting to stay upright.

Zuko felt his mind slowly clearing, sharpening out of the fog the moksha weed had put him in. "How much further is it to the cave entrance?" he asked.

"Not far, my serious single-eye Fire friend," Chong replied without missing a beat. "What awaits you there that you're in such a hurry to get to?"

Zuko blinked. "In Omashu?" He paused, thinking. "Nothing in particular for me, I guess. We're mostly going there for Aang…he's looking for some of his fellow airbenders there that might have survived the Fire Nation raids."

"Ahh, I see. Well what about yourself, then? What are _you_ looking for?"

He thought of Iroh, and swallowed heavily. "…I want to find my uncle, wherever he is." He lowered his head. "That is, if he even wants me to find him."

Chong nodded with clear understanding. "I know just what you're going through, man. Family is important." He strummed his pipa thoughtfully as he spoke. "You can't always make them agree with you about everything—like how Lily's dad didn't like the idea of her being a wanderer out in the wilderness with me—"

"Imagine that," Zuko muttered.

"—but in the end, he realized it was what she wanted. You have to make amends with your family. They're the only people who will stick by you in troubled times."

Zuko thought of his blood relatives other than his uncle—_father, sister_—and decided Chong couldn't have possibly been more wrong. _Even my own mother didn't take me with her, when things got too complicated. No one believes the lie that blood really is thicker; no one sticks around. _

With the exception of Iroh, he thought, family was most definitely overrated.

They finally came upon the giant yawning entrance to the cave, and Chong threw his arms up ecstatically. "We're here, weary travelers!" It took several moments for the various stragglers of the group—Katara, Aang, Haru and the younger boys, the animals, and Sokka and the rest of the dancing party—to catch up. Only Toph seemed somewhat confident with respect to where she was going, despite the shoes on her feet; the rest of them seemed more dazed and disoriented by the walk then they'd been by the fireside.

The Duke gasped as he looked up at and into the cave's dark mouth. "…Wow. We're going in _there?_ Are you sure you guys know the way?"

Zuko blew a soft breath, and a bright flame materialized in the palm of his hand. "I can light the way for us. As long as those of you who've been through here before know the path through the tunnel, we should be all right…" He was none too comforted at both Aang and Katara's slightly vacuous stares.

Toph strode ahead, past the group hesitating at the entrance. She waved her arm impatiently. "Come _on,_ already. Quit dallying! I know where we're going."

"Follow the firebender!" Chong crowed, happily strumming his pipa once again and taking off after Toph, prompting a look of utter confusion from the Fire Prince. Zuko shook his head as if to clear it, before following them inside.

_Here goes nothing._

-o-

-o-

Katara had debated the wisdom of going into the Cave of Two Lovers again, even though they now had Toph and a firebender to guide their way, when she still felt so strange and groggy after having eaten Lily and Moku's cake. Everything around her seemed to take longer, as if time had somehow slowed down. Her hearing was muted a bit, like her ears were stuffed with koala-sheep cotton. Even walking was more of a chore. She had stumbled on her feet a few times on the hike up to the entrance of the cave; embarrassing, given what she liked to think was her usual natural grace.

But, blanketing the odd feelings was a strange, pervading sense of calm that prevented her from outright panicking over their situation. Yes, it was possible they could very well get lost again in the tunnel—but they had made it out once before, _something relating to some kind of shiny rock or something—_

She'd barely noticed Haru sidling up to her after they'd entered the cave. "Hey, Katara," he said, his words quietly slurring, so close that she could pick up the scent of the weed he'd smoked on his breath. "Don't worry about anything, okay? I've got everything under control here."

She nodded, dumbly. "…Okay." In truth, she doubted Haru's ability to take care of the group any better than she could at this point, but it was admirable he'd even offered.

_At least Haru has a sense of how to make someone feel better_, she thought, directing her gaze to the firebender's form several yards ahead. As they walked further into the cave, the light dimmed and his own fire outlined his figure in a halo. _**He**__ wouldn't know how to compliment someone if his life depended on it. I'm a 'good cook'? That's all he could think of?_

Katara frowned to herself. _Even if he says he cares about the others, the bottom line is he still always thinks of himself first._ Her hands fisted at her sides.

_Stupid Fire Prince._

They walked for a long while, long after the entrance of the cave behind them had become only a tiny dot of light and then gone entirely, plunging them into near-total blackness save for the meager firelight. The shadows cast by the hand-made torch looked monstrous and sinister on the walls, and Katara felt The Duke move stealthily closer to her under the cover of the dark.

Up ahead at the forefront of the group she could see that Toph was busily leading the way, Chong, Sokka and Zuko not far behind. "Hey, maybe we'll see our big furry friends again this time," Chong suggested airily to no one in particular, his voice echoing in the dark recesses of the cave.

"You mean the badgermoles?" Toph asked, stopping so that she could feel around on the earth carefully with her shoe-covered feet. "But I don't sense any nearby anywhere. Are you sure they're in here?"

"Lemme bring 'em out!" Before anyone could answer, Sokka had grabbed Chong's instrument from his hands, and began strumming it in a discordant rhythm to a raucous song. "BIG BAD BADGERMOLESSS….THAT LIVE IN THE TUNNELLL….HATE THE WOLFBATS, BUT LOVE THE SONGGG."

"Heyyy, that's a pretty good tune! Why didn't _I_ think of that one?" Chong asked, grinning ear to ear.

The Duke cowered nervously. "W-wolf…bats?" he asked, his voice small and tremulous; and suddenly there was a noise like a howling wind coming toward them from deep in the interior of the cave.

"…What's that sound?" Sokka cocked his head curiously, his hand stilled on the small guitar.

Toph's ears pricked, and her eyebrows shot up. "…_Wolfbats!_ Everyone get down!"

The group collectively ducked as the wolfbats swarmed, screeching. Haru directed a thin layer of rock to use as a shield, covering them, but the bats didn't didn't attack—instead nimbly dodging the kids and their umbrella of earth as they flew past at breakneck speed.

"They look like they're fleeing from something," Zuko observed, watching them depart down another corridor of the cave. He stood up as their protective barrier was waved away and returned to the dirt.

That was when the earth beneath their feet lurched and rumbled precariously, jarring them where they stood. "Toph, stop doing this, it isn't funny," The Duke warned, looking frightened.

"It's not me!"

Something hit him on the head, and Sokka turned to look lazily upwards, his unfocussed eyes scanning the dark cavern wall above—which had started to let loose small pebbles and debris that fell on them. "_Heyyy,_" he mumbled. "Nobody told me we were in a cave made of_ earth!_"

Katara looked up worriedly._ The entire cave couldn't actually collapse—could it?_ she wondered, fearful herself now that she knew it wasn't the earthbender causing the cavern to shake. She didn't have time to dwell on it.

Someone was yelling—Teo, it occurred to her, perhaps even Sokka—and suddenly both Haru and Zuko were running at her, in her direction—

—but it was Zuko who collided with her, pushing her violently to one side and rolling with her on the ground, breaking her fall with his own body. She looked up from underneath him as the dust momentarily settled, and saw that the place she had been standing not split-seconds earlier was covered with rocks and boulders three times her size.

"Get—get off me," she wheezed, trying desperately to ignore the feel of his fingers digging into her ribcage, his hot breath on her cheek close to her ear, how amazingly _warm_ he was against her. She pushed at him with her hands and scrambled to her feet. "Get _off!_" Even as she stood up she couldn't stop shaking, and she knew it had nothing to do with the ground still rumbling beneath her.

Zuko scowled at her ingratitude from his vantage point on the ground. "…You're welcome."

"_Katara!_" Aang's shout was fraught with panic, and for a moment she thought he sounded even younger than his twelve years. Katara tried to control the frantic pounding of her own heart, taking ragged breaths; the cave was completely dark, and she could only make out the figures of the others when Zuko lit his fire once more. She saw relief sweep across the airbender's face as he saw she was all right.

"We'd better high-tail it outta here," Toph shouted above the continual fall of debris, "I can't tell what's going on, but I'll try to hold it as best as I can!" She dug her shoe-covered heels tenaciously into the dirt and brought her fists upward, holding the rock and earth above them in solid formation as best she could. "I can't see it clearly, but it's…it almost feels like someone is trying to bury us in here with earthbending!"

"It can't be," Aang whispered, distraught. "Is it the badgermoles? Have we done something to upset them?"

"Oh _man_," Chong mumbled, and Lily took his hand worriedly. "We're gonna be buried alive?"

Sokka chose that moment to strike one last dramatic chord on the stringed pipa, unaware of the chaos around him. "….And _DIE_."

"It's not the badgermoles," Toph reiterated urgently, her vacant seafoam-green eyes going wide. "It's—"

She was cut off by the sound of a rock avalanche—and despite her own strength, without the complete use of her feet she couldn't see properly to hold back the collapsing tide of earth any longer. Katara heard the sound of Toph's startled shriek, as well as Appa's loud groan, as the entire cavern gave way in front of them.

"Toph!" She could barely hear the sound of her own voice or the shouts of her companions over the collapse of the cave.

When the dust finally cleared, she righted herself, coughing, to find Zuko a short distance away, brushing himself off and simultaneously providing her with scant light. She looked in the direction that she'd last seen Aang, and Toph, and Sokka and the others—and saw only a wall of rock and crumbled earth instead.

She ran to face the mountainous wall of earth separating them from the rest of the group. "Oh _no,_" she shrieked, tears forming in her eyes as she tenaciously dug her hands into the pile of dirt and attempted to sift through it, barehanded. "_They've been smothered!_"

"Not smothered," Zuko said, coughing the last of the dust from his lungs, "more like sealed off. And they don't have a firebender with them…which means they're completely in the dark." He frowned at her movements, at seeing her small hands digging against the sharp rocks. "But I don't think you're going to dig them out, that way…"

"Well, _doing something_ about it is better than just standing there!" Katara barked impatiently, her hands still buried in the dirt.

"I'm not just _standing_ here, I was going to help you!"

They both seemed ripe for a verbal rematch from their earlier exchange, but both stopped short when they heard a groan nearby. It was Haru, emerging from a pile of rubble. The earthbender was holding his head as if he'd been knocked on it.

"Haru," Katara cried out with something like relief. "I'm so glad it's you! Can you get us out of here? We need to get back to the others and make sure they're all right!"

He nodded. "Give me a few minutes to get my bearings," he said, hands on his knees as he recovered. He glanced about them, in the dim light provided by Zuko's flame. "Is it only the three of us?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Katara lowered her head. "I can't do much to help you with my waterbending—I'll just turn it into a mud_slide_ instead of a mud wall. But maybe with you and Zuko combined, we might be able to make a dent in this cave-in—"

"If I'm helping to move rocks, I can't provide any light," Zuko pointed out, and she instinctively bristled in irritation as she realized it herself. "We'd be totally in the dark." Katara looked from him to Haru and back again, uncertain.

"Hey, that's fine by me," Haru offered quickly. Katara thought he sounded just a bit too chipper for the subject matter. "The important thing is that we're able to get back to the others, and quickly. Right?" He seemed convincing, and Katara shrugged, rubbing her arm hesitantly.

"If you say so," she replied.

"Okay, then." Zuko's voice held hesitation, as well. "Lights out in three…" He looked at Haru. "…Two…" His eyes met Katara's, and she held them for as long as he did. "…One." He snuffed out the fire in his palm.

She heard the sound of rocks and earth moving in the wall before them, and grunts and similar breathing sounds from the two boys as they began working. Katara hugged her chest at first, to avoid flinging an arm out into the path of anything or anyone—but then the curious side of her won out, and she tentatively felt around her with a searching hand in the darkness.

Someone grabbed her hand in return, firmly, and she fought to hold back a scream of fright. The hand was warm, sturdy. It slid up her forearm, up to her shoulder—and then before she could even react, the hand reached her face and curved to gently cup her cheek. Someone was standing directly before her. Her heart leapt inside her chest, and she gasped.

The memory of the last time she'd been in the cave flashed before her, unbidden—the statues, the crystals, the sweet feeling of uncertainty and nervousness and possibilities. People from warring families, reaching out for and finding one another in the scant light of the underground cave. _Love is brightest in the dark_.

_Zuko?_

She could hear Haru still working at clearing the wall of rock. He might hear them at any moment, wonder what they were doing—but at that moment it didn't matter. Katara felt his breath on her face, felt her own breath quickening, and she struggled to maintain her composure. A prickling sensation crept along her arms as she realized what the Fire Prince was about to do; it was on the tip of her tongue to say _no_, but for some reason the words wouldn't come.

"I—" she began.

She was cut off by soft lips pressing against hers—at first awkward and hesitant, but then his mouth moved against hers with more confidence. His lips were warmer than his hands, and tasted faintly of spice and something sweet. His hands were now at the back of her head, cradling it.

_Oh._ This was wrong, and she knew she shouldn't be doing this with him, with _him_ of all people. This was Zuko—and even if he was an ally now, he was still the Prince of the Fire Nation. But…

…she had only been kissed twice before in her life, by two other boys—Jet, and Aang—and it was not like this. Jet had been forceful and not let her up for a breath, and Aang had been all fumbling lips and tongue in his attempt. This was a kiss by someone who had kissed before, and knew what he was doing. Katara felt herself melting into it, even as her lips broke from his to form soft words of protest.

"No, this isn't right," she whispered, her voice soothing, trying gently to extract herself from his embrace. He struggled against it. "_No_, we should stop, Z—"

From over by the caved-in wall of earth Zuko's voice suddenly cut through the dark, irritation curdling it and making it even raspier. "Haru—what are you _doing_ over there? Help me move these rocks!"

Katara stilled and felt the blood in her veins turning to ice, as she came to the horrifying realization that what she felt tickling against her chin was actually facial hair.

…._**Oh.**_

Her surprise was quickly replaced by furious embarrassment. She'd thought it was _Zuko_ kissing her, and she'd _let_ him, and maybe even—maybe she'd even—

Refusing to entertain the thought any further she shoved Haru away roughly and reared her hand back, slapping him across the face for his audacity. By the time Zuko had lit a fire in his palm, illuminating them in the cave, Haru was standing several feet from her and rubbing his reddened cheek.

"…What's going on?" Zuko asked, oblivious as he looked between them, and Katara reddened lividly as she turned away.

"…Nothing. Absolutely _nothing_."

With that she forcefully stomped over to the wall of rock, next to the firebender, and buried her hands into the earth in a renewed effort to dig. Zuko only looked at her curiously for a moment before turning and resuming his work at her side to clear the rubble with one hand, keeping the cave lit with his fire in the other.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Haru stubbornly pouting. He too finally gave in and began using his bending to finish clearing the debris, and through subtle glances she saw that Zuko studiously avoided looking directly at the red mark across the earthbender's tanned cheek.

-o-

-o-

When the caved-in wall was finally down enough for them to see through it, the three were disappointed to see that there was no Sokka, or Aang, or Toph, or Appa waiting for them on the other side—no one else was in sight. "Wh-where'd everyone go?" Katara wondered aloud, brushing her dirtied hands of earth.

"They might have moved on to a different section of the cave," Zuko offered. "Let's continue down this way to see if we can catch up to them." They began walking.

"I don't understand why they didn't stay where they last saw us," she lamented as she walked beside him, Haru trailing a few steps behind them both. "After all, they have Toph, too, she could have—"

"Yeah, but Toph's feet are injured, remember? She might not have been able to clear it." Zuko reminded her, and Katara internally cursed herself for not having insisted upon healing the earthbender's feet in the first place. "Don't worry, we'll find them," he went on reassuringly. "They probably tried to take a different route out of the cave, and maybe they even ran into these badgermoles that you guys were talking about…"

"I don't think these badgermoles even _exist_," Haru grumbled. Katara turned on him, glaring and ready to retort, but was surprised when Zuko turned behind him and spoke up instead.

"Focus, Haru. Let's try to stay positive." He pretended to do an exaggerated double-take, and a subconscious part of Katara realized it was for her benefit. "…Hey, by the way—what's wrong with your cheek?"

Haru stammered in frustration and mumbled something incoherent; Katara faced the cave ahead and bit the inside of her cheek in an effort not to smile.

A faint rumbling of the cave, as well as something that sounded far-away but thunderous—like an explosion—interrupted any other thoughts. All three were visibly jolted on their feet. Zuko turned to them. "Did you hear that?..."

"It's coming from further down the tunnel this way," Katara asserted, hopping into a sprint. "_Come on!_"

"Katara, wait! Slow down!" Zuko was yelling after her, already broken into a run after her. Suddenly the darkness didn't matter, Haru's kiss didn't matter, her clumsiness from having eaten the stupid cake didn't matter anymore—and something told her these were no coincidental sounds they were hearing.

They arrived in the thick of it. Toph, Appa, and a still-bewildered Aang were trying to protect the rest of the group against an enormous, hulking giant of a man, whom Katara could see had a metal arm and leg. She instantly recognized him as the one who'd attacked them a month earlier, before the eclipse—only seconds before he turned on the three of them and something from his _forehead_ lit up with a spark, briefly illuminating the cave even more than Zuko's flame.

"_Get down!_" Zuko was against her before she knew what was happening, shielding her with a wave of his fire—but even so, they were both knocked into the cave wall by the resulting blast.

Katara shook herself off, not injured in the least. "Are you all right?" she asked, looking back up at him behind her. He nodded, wincing, and she started babbling in her confusion. "He's back, I don't know how that guy found us, but—"

"I know him," he growled tersely, looking back at where Aang was busily trying to distract the giant. "Let me take care of this." He took off running to the middle of the cave clearing before she could say anything in protest.

"Wow, he _is_ crazy," Haru muttered behind her, to her disdain.

The giant Sokka had nicknamed Combustion Man was focused again on Aang, his forehead already sparking in preparation to fire—but his aim was thrown off by a burst of Zuko's flame. "Stop it!" Zuko cried, getting into the much larger man's face and attempting to block him from firing, bodily. "_Stop_—no more! I don't want you hunting the Avatar anymore!"

The giant simply swatted Zuko aside and attempted to focus on Aang, who was darting about evasively. The firebender growled and got to his feet.

"You won't listen to me—so I won't take it easy on you," he threatened, and took up a fighting stance as Combustion Man faced him again.

"Zuko, get out of the way," Aang shouted. "I'll lead him further into the cave; you guys get ou—"

But Zuko was already leaping ahead, flames bursting from his punches, and then his legs sweeping down low in an attempt to knock the giant off of his feet. It worked, and the faulty resulting aim shattered the nearby cave wall harmlessly with an explosion.

Combustion Man turned on him again and fired; Zuko put up a wall of flame in defense, but the blast was too powerful for his firebending. He was knocked off his feet, and tumbled into a side of the cave. The giant advanced on him as he sat slumped against the wall, stunned, looking up with horror dawning on his face. He struggled as he was lifted up into the air by the neck of his tunic, the giant's fist choking off his air supply as he made ready to fire a direct hit.

"_Zuko!_" Sokka's boomerang whirled through the air, striking Combustion Man in the back of the head. "Yeah, _Boomerang!_" He pumped the air enthusiastically with his fist.

It startled Combustion Man enough to make him drop Zuko, but unfortunately it didn't affect his ability to discharge his blast, and his forehead sparked again as he turned on Sokka and Toph, as they covered for the rest of the kids and the hippies who were making a run for it.

"Oh—oh—oh crap!" Sokka screeched, and dove for cover under a wall that Toph made for them along the cave fork. The explosion that chased them rattled the entire cavern, itself.

"_That's enough!_" Zuko roared, getting to his feet again and charging the giant. "_Leave them alone!_" But he'd miscalculated how fast he could run, and Combustion Man turned on him too quickly.

"_**No!**_" Katara found herself shouting out before she could stop herself. Before her unbelieving eyes, Zuko stepped right into the line of fire—and the explosion hit him dead-center.

She struggled to get up, but Haru tried to hold her. "It's too dangerous!" he insisted, even as she fought against his grip. She looked back toward the center of the cave and saw Zuko lying absolutely still on the earthen floor, lifeless. He looked broken, his limbs splayed and twisted from the blast. She felt herself start to panic. _Oh no…this isn't happening…this can't be happening…_

Then the cavern began to shake and tremble under their feet, and this time three enormous badgermoles broke through the adjoining walls of the cave clearing. Growling and snarling, they advanced on Combustion Man, who whirled to face them with something that looked like real fear in his eyes. He tried to discharge a blast at them, but with their gigantic paws they moved the earth too quickly, too fast for him to get his bearings—and he went sailing through the air, pummeled simultaneously by boulders and rocks twice his own size. Two of the beasts opened a hole in the cave floor and with earthbending dragged him down with them, still bombarding him with rocks.

Katara broke free of Haru and ran to the center of the cave, kneeling at Zuko's side. Aang leapt down to stand beside her and looked anxiously from the Fire Prince on the ground to her, and back again. "…Katara?" the young monk asked, fearfully.

She checked him for a heartbeat, a breath, any signs of life—but could only feel a pulse so weak that it was barely there. His injuries were too severe.

They were losing him.

Something welled up within her, and she grit her teeth and fisted her hands on the chest of his tunic. _No. We're __**not**__ losing him. We're not—I'm not going to give up—not like—_

She turned back as one of the badgermoles advanced toward her, grunting and growling. "Please," she begged, "_please_…get me outside. I have to get him outside!"

As if the badgermole had understood the request, she watched as the huge beast pressed its front paws together before stamping them down forcefully on the floor of the cave—and just like that a new tunnel was forged through the earth, one that bypassed all of the other forks and turns and opened at the end of it to reveal daylight.

She opened the skin at her waist and bent her water into an ice slide, lifting Zuko and propping him over her shoulder and against her chest. She bent the ice with her hands, and combined with water it propelled them both quickly down the tunnel to the entrance of the cave, where she stumbled out into the light and let him down gently onto the ground again.

Sokka, Toph, and the others including Chong and Lily ran up to help; Katara waved them back, gently. "He needs air. Don't crowd him…"

And they stepped back, as she knelt beside his lifeless form again, placing her hands—gloved with water—on his bare chest where she'd opened up his tunic to touch his skin. She closed her eyes and tried to sink her awareness into his blood. It was still daylight, and not even close to a full moon in the sky, and she knew she didn't have the advantage that nighttime offered her…but she wasn't going to let go. _Come on, Zuko,_ she whispered to him inside her head. _Come on. You're too stubborn, and you never give up without a fight, don't give up now, Aang needs you…don't…_

She felt her eyes stinging, prickling hot and moist as she held on tenaciously with her powers. _…__**please**__, don't…_

—And then she felt it, her senses trickling along his veins—she could feel the outline of his heart, in his chest, and twitching her fingers ever so slightly she massaged it—encouraging it, coaxing it back into beating—

—and just as suddenly he coughed, wheezing hard as he inhaled gusts of air. His breathing returned to normal, and she felt his blood moving again, his heart pumping steadily…and Katara thought she would never again hear a sound that was better to her ears.

Aang was looking at her with wonder etched on his face. "Katara, you…you brought him back…" He looked at her as though he could scarcely believe his eyes; but Toph was already shoving him and the others away, her bravado masking her concern as usual.

"Okay, Hotpants is going to be all right—let's move back a bit and give him some breathing room, okay guys?..."

Zuko coughed again, opening his eyes and seeing her hovering above him. "…Katara," he croaked hoarsely.

She shushed him. "Don't talk. Just breathe, Zuko…breathe." She smoothed away a lock of his hair that had fallen in his eyes, gently, and was startled by how easily the action came to her, how natural it felt. "You're going to be okay, all right?"

He still struggled to speak. _Stubborn._ "I'm…I'm sorry," he whispered. "For everything, Katara..."

She shook her head at him. "Don't be. It's all right." She bit her lip as she felt herself yielding towards honesty. "I misjudged you—"

"No, _I_ misjudged _you_," he returned quickly, wheezing with the effort, "…I misjudged all of you, for way too long, and…I know what…what I have to do, now…"

"Shhh…stop talking—"

"I need your help," he rasped quietly, for her ears only. "I have to learn how to generate...my own lightning, and…and I can't do it…without your help."

Katara froze, hanging on his words. "My help? But what—I don't understand—"

"I can't do it without you," he whispered, his gold eyes pleading, and she felt herself being drawn into them even as she tried to hold herself back. "You're a…master at waterbending. I need you to…show me, so that I can learn the moves..." She then realized what he'd been trying to do all of those nights she'd seen him, all along—his arm movements, his attempts at mimicking her bending. He had been trying to teach himself how to bend lightning, to no avail.

"Please, Katara…will you help me?"

She paused for the briefest moment and then nodded, unable to help herself. "…Okay, yes, I will, Zuko," she promised. "Just try to relax, for now, okay? Just—"

His eyes were glittering. "_Thank you_," he whispered, bringing one of his hands up to touch hers, and winding it around her fingers, still at his chest. He closed his eyes, as if finally in relief. "Thank you…"

She whispered back in a mantra, unable to think of anything else to say. "It's okay…it's okay." She held on to his hand for long moments, as he rested on the ground.

-o-

-o-

Much later, Katara would recollect the fact that the effects of the moksha weed had been long gone for both of them at that point in time.

* * *

__________________________________________________________________

**A/N:**

In Hindu religions, the word Moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष _mok__ṣ__a)_ means "release"; it symbolizes a higher state of being, a transcendence into higher consciousness through which Nirvana can be achieved. It is supposed to uncover the eternal, pure spirit of those who practice its ways. Interestingly, cannabis (marijuana) has been used by spiritual Hindus for centuries as a method of spiritual development. Cannabis was also used as a "truth serum" by the US OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in the 1940s, during WWII.

***

A long time ago I had this "very special (fictitious) episode" idea about the Gaang getting "stoned" in some form or another, and how each of them would react to it. Of course it's not likely such a suggestion would have ever ended up in the actual series (although, Sokka *did* get drunk on mind-altering cactus juice), but it seemed to fit in at this point in the story, especially on their return to Omashu, and I thought people might get a good laugh out of some curious teenage experimentation. Apologies to anyone who was offended by such a suggestion. :)


	8. solar sympathy, part 1

A/N: Sorry again for the extremely late update. RL has been quite busy and taxing.

This was a long chapter, so split into two….the second part is coming soon. I promise! :D

* * *

_God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold. _

— Sri Sathya Sai Baba

* * *

-**chapter 8**-

**- solar sympathy -**

**- (part 1) -**

-o-

-o-

Zuko sat—head bowed, dark hair hanging over his eyes—on a large flat rock outside the cave, where Katara had left him to rest after she'd finished healing him. She'd warned him not to overdo anything, and to wait a bit to try to get his strength back, but he was reluctant to sit and do nothing. He wanted to push onwards toward Omashu, and beyond—he wanted to start the training she'd agreed to with him, to learn how to generate lightning; he wanted to find Aang's lost airbenders, if that would help him regain the Avatar State. Maybe there was even someone in the Earth Kingdom who knew something, anything, about Pai Sho and its hidden secret meanings that were whispered back and forth among old, wizened men…

_There's just too much to do. _No time to be spent sitting around nursing wounds that had already been healed.

He suddenly raised his head as he felt the air around him shift and shimmer, having become familiar with the subtle nuances of the Avatar's approach. "…How are you feeling, Zuko?" Aang asked hesitantly, gray eyes wide with concern.

"Better." He managed a small smile for the airbender's benefit. "Thank you."

Aang gave a heavy sigh that broke into a reassured grin. "That's a relief. I was really worried when I saw you fall, in the cave…"

"I know," Zuko nodded, unwilling to discuss it in detail. It reminded him too much in a parallel way of when he'd seen Katara holding the broken body of the Avatar after his fall under Ba Sing Se—her hair loose and around her face, drenched with her own water, holding Aang to her like her own child and looking back up at him and his sister as though they'd just murdered the world's last great hope...which, at the time, he'd thought he had.

_Not exactly a pleasant memory_. "I'm just glad Katara got to me in time." He lowered his gold eyes thoughtfully. "She's…really something. It's amazing what she can do."

His last comments seemed to take Aang off guard, and he noticed the airbender's features darken slightly as his eyes shifted downward. "…Yeah, she…she is. Something." Zuko wisely bit his lip and decided not to say anything else on the matter.

Their mutual moment of discomfort was soon broken by farewells going on nearby.

Sokka had finally shaken off his weed-induced stupor and was awkwardly addressing the Nomads, rubbing his head. "Hey, look, Chong, I'm…I feel kind of pig-sheepish about this. I'm sorry that I got so wacky on that moksha weed. I hope I wasn't too much of a burden on everyone, you know, with that whole _'and dieeee_' thing in the cave—"

"No hard feelings, _ever_, man," Chong replied happily, grinning wide. He absently strummed a single chord on the pipa before extending a hand in goodwill. "I'm just glad it got you in tune with the world around you."

"And I'm sorry to hear you guys won't be going to Omashu again with us," Sokka went on, reaching out to amiably shake Chong's hand with a smile, and shrugged. "But…to be honest, I really didn't expect any of you to, either."

Chong pumped his hand with enthusiasm. "Sokka, my man," he said affectionately, "I consider myself fortunate that we've met up twice, already; I hope we meet up yet again on this road called Life. Traveling with you and Master Arrowhead is always an adventure." With that he pulled the Water Tribe boy in for a platypus-bear-sized hug.

"Same here." Sokka grinned, returning the embrace. He watched with a faint smile on his face as Chong and Lily and Moku headed out in an eastern direction of the city, playing their music and dancing happily.

Toph came to stand beside him, and called out to the departing Nomads with a grin: "And watch out for those komodo chickens, will ya?" Chong waved at her without turning.

Katara was already fixing a meager meal with their supplies, and looked up at her brother and Toph as they re-approached the weary group. "Zuko's still too weak to travel," she stated, "so we should make camp down here at the base of the mountain tonight. We can sneak into Omas—New Ozai, first thing tomorrow."

"I'm all right," Zuko made a half-hearted attempt to argue, straightening his spine as he did; she glared sternly at him.

"You need more rest."

"I'm _fine_, we should get moving, and get up to—"

"…_No._ You're not."

Aang seemed irritated by the plan, and even less enthused about having to listen to the two of them bicker over Zuko's degree of wellness. "But I need to talk to Bumi," he complained, frowning faintly at the group at large, studiously avoiding the waterbender's eyes. "I need to find out specifically if he knows anything about any Air Nomads that might be hiding anywhere near the city."

"You can do that tomorrow." Katara punctuated her statement with a forceful stir of the soup she hovered over as it cooked. Aang's fists tightened around the staff of his glider, his mouth turned downwards in frustration.

"No—this is important. I'm going to go talk to him, _now!_" Before Katara could argue with him further he was sprinting off, flicking open his glider and leaping into the air onto it, gaining altitude quickly.

She startled; just as quickly she jumped to her feet as he took off, and started to run after him. "_Aang!_ Get back here! Don't you fly away from me like th—"

But it was Zuko who stood up to put a reassuring hand on her arm, halting her. "Let him go," he said. "He'll be all right. He can take care of himself." He understood the airbender's impatience, even if he himself would have chosen a different way to express it.

He felt Katara's bare skin briefly jump at the contact—then she was nodding, ducking her head slightly and pulling away from him. "You're right," she admitted. She suddenly looked at him standing beside her, scrutinizing and appraising him carefully, and she set her hands to her hips. "You _are_ feeling better, aren't you."

It wasn't a question. Zuko nodded. "If this means you're reconsidering our plans this evening—"

"I am." She arched her brows. "…But not in the way you're thinking."

-o-

-o-

Aang's glider held him aloft in the air, high enough that he sailed over the crest of the mountainside where his friends rested at the bottom. He had a birds'-eye view of New Ozai, and with a twinge of disappointment he noted the Fire Nation factory still belching smoke, the stylized flame emblems and crests still adorning the architecture—as well as the stone monument to Ozai still intact at the city's summit.

His features tightened into a frown. It was obvious. _Bumi still hasn't made his move. What is he waiting for?_

He took a sharp dive on his glider as he spotted a Fire Nation officer in a nearby watchtower, and just barely ducked out of the soldier's line of sight, flattening himself against an adjacent pillar. He heaved a sigh of relief when the officer did a single sweep with a spyglass, and then headed back inside. "That was close," he breathed to himself.

There would be no aerial entrance into the city for him. Aang looked down below him at the lower structure of the outer wall and recalled how they'd gotten in the last time, undetected—the sewer pipe. It was wet and stinky, but luckily with his waterbending he wouldn't get a drop on him.

The thought of waterbending of course made him think of _her_, and momentarily he felt his expression pulling towards frustrated sadness—until he shook his head to clear it. _No. Can't think about that, now. Have to focus._

He coasted down the city's wall to the sewer's entrance, and fished the cap of it off with the staff of his glider, releasing a stream of foul fluid from the pipe in the process. He wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant stench. "…Here goes nothing." Aang held his breath and pressed forward.

The light in the sky was fading by the time he made it up to the city's main sector, and he looked about warily as he emerged from a drainage tunnel. Nearly every single one of the city's original inhabitants had been evacuated after the last time they'd been to Omashu, thanks to Sokka's ingenious idea involving the Pentapox. Now it was only Fire Nation nobles and soldiers residing…and Bumi, if he could find him.

Jumping lithely onto the lower roof of a nearby residence, he tried to get his bearings. The room they'd held Bumi imprisoned in his metal and wood cage—_which he could have broken out of himself, if he were Toph,_ his mind helpfully and fleetingly supplied—had been somewhere nearby, but it had been too many months and he couldn't remember exactly. He would have to go searching building by building for—

His thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice on the balcony right above him, and again Aang flattened himself against the stone shingles, holding his breath.

"I'm glad to be back here again," the bubbly and perky voice chirped, and he immediately recognized Ty Lee, Azula's acrobatic chi-blocking friend, as the one speaking. He listened. "It feels like old times again, when we were kids; just you and me, right, Mai?"

A bored sigh answered her. "…And Azula. Remember Azula was always there, waiting to pull something on one, or both of us." Mai's voice became slightly louder as she joined Ty Lee on the balcony, and Aang carefully and silently inched away from the scene.

If Mai and Ty Lee were here, it meant Azula wasn't far behind. The notion filled him with a sickening dread, and he could suddenly feel the scar she'd given him on his back erupt in a flash of new pain, like a bright light behind his eyes.

He had to find Bumi. The future of his people depended upon it. He slipped off into the heart of the city.

-o-

-o-

"It's still a nice change to be by ourselves, you know," Ty Lee went on, looking searchingly at her friend and trying her best to decipher her mood, much to Mai's irritation. Ty Lee being Ty Lee, she likely wouldn't shut up until she'd deduced something about someone to her satisfaction. "And isn't it nice to be away from the stuffy old palace grounds, for a while?"

_Since Zuko left, you mean_, was the unspoken end she was sure should have been at the end of Ty Lee's sentence; nevertheless, Mai found herself agreeing anyway. "…Yeah. It's not bad." At least the air was fresh and clean here, and although her parents were an occasional annoyance, they stayed mostly out of her hair now after Azula had commandeered her services and insulted her father's own governing abilities to his face, shaming him fully in front of his family. There was something terrifying about the Princess that made her cohorts untouchable simply for having been in her presence, as though it had rubbed off on them somehow. Fear had a way of doing that to people.

"Don't forget, we're not here for a vacation, though," she reminded Ty Lee, and the acrobat's large, luminous gray eyes lowered slightly in disappointment as though she'd been scolded. "We've been given orders to be ready for something here, very soon."

"Do you really think Zuko and the Avatar are going to come _here?_ To New Ozai?"

Mai's lips tightened. "I don't know for absolute certain. But it's likely, isn't it, given the fact that we've been sent here? Azula is never without a plan."

"That's right, she's a mastermind!" Ty Lee chirped. "Azula always has the situation covered, for any occasion, doesn't she?"

Mai managed a stiff nod, and not much else.

The next question was quieter and somewhat more hesitant, as though the circus acrobat had actually thought something through—_shocking, _Mai sneered in her own head—and a puzzle piece didn't fit. "But…what are you going to do if Zuko _does_ come here?"

"…Whatever Azula tells me to." The flatness with which she said it surprised even herself.

"Even if—even if she asks you to do something you don't want to do?" Ty Lee sounded horrified by the prospect.

This time, Mai turned to face her, bristling. The question alone sounded mutinous, and she didn't like having her motives second-guessed. Sure, she'd said no to Azula before—more than once, even. But this was a subject that she knew for a fact the Princess demanded complete loyalty on.

She folded her arms in their long sleeves protectively over her chest, her eyes narrowed. "What exactly does _that_ mean, Ty Lee?"

To her surprise the other girl's eyes were uncharacteristically solemn and serious, and Ty Lee held up her arms in supplication. "I'm—I'm not questioning your allegiances, Mai. Honestly, I'm not." She lowered her hands and looked earnestly at her friend. "I just—I know how you feel about him…" she rubbed her arms uncomfortably, "…and whatever Azula will tell you to do to him, I know it…it won't be good. You know that too, I know you do."

Mai turned away from her, to look again over the balcony. As high up as they were in the governor's mansion, they had a view of nearly the entire city before them, outlined by the orange and gold rays of the setting sun.

What was he doing, right at this moment? Was he even thinking of her? Was he regretting his decision to leave, to abandon his duty, his crown, his family, _her? _Or did none of that even matter to him, anymore?

_I wish I knew, Zuko,_ she thought, watching the resplendent colors mingling before becoming darker as they settled below the horizon. _I wish I knew why you did the stupid thing that you did, because you barely said anything in your letter—and now all I can think about is how you're going the way of the sunlight, sinking lower and lower into the dark until you're gone forever. _

Her hand curled itself into a fist at the railing. _And I can't follow you that way._

"I am in Azula's service, as you are…and Zuko is a traitor," she remarked coldly, still staring over the balcony; out of the corner of her eye she saw Ty Lee's face crumple with worry. "And whatever Azula asks me to do to a traitor, I'll carry it out. I won't hesitate to do it." She looked sternly at her friend, finally, and kept the chill purposefully in her voice. "You'd be smart not to disobey her, either."

"…Or else she'll do the same to me?"

Mai froze. It was the first time she'd heard Ty Lee say anything of the sort, even remotely, against Azula's sway over them. Mai had backtalked to the Princess's face before, refusing to do certain stupid or mundane tasks, but she realized at that moment that she'd never figured Ty Lee to have quietly grown the seeds of her own little internal rebellion herself. The girl had always seemed too happy-go-lucky, too ditzy and playful to realize just how precarious their situations were. Apparently she'd been wrong to judge.

"Don't worry," Ty Lee went on cryptically, still with that eerily calm, subdued voice, "if something happens…when it happens…I'm not going to let the situation get out of control. I'll handle it. And I'll protect both of us. I'll protect you."

She said the last words so quietly that Mai wasn't sure she'd heard them correctly. It was on the tip of her tongue to retort quickly that she _didn't need_ protection, from _anyone_—but before she could speak her mind, Ty Lee had silently turned to go back inside.

-o-

-o-

Dusk was settling in, blanketing the land with a dark, soft hue. Zuko felt that melancholy stir again in his blood at the setting of the sun, something few firebenders—powerful ones—were privy to. It was a sad sort of feeling, like the strongest spark within him was slipping away, but he'd learned to appreciate it nevertheless. In the morning come sunrise, that spark would return with a vengeance; nighttime meant he had a chance to cool the flame that normally resided in him a bit, giving him the rare opportunity to be introspective. He found that his mind worked faster at night, with more clarity, when it wasn't heated by the daytime rush of blood and fire.

He came upon Katara at a small riverbank a good distance from their main campsite, and looked on curiously as she practiced, unaware of him—she was bending the water from the stream up into swirling spirals that churned in the air. Then, as he watched, she separated them into two and evaporated one into steam. The other spiral condensed until it looked as though the particles had become tiny droplets forming solid ice, suspended in mid-air as if hung there, like shimmering ornaments in the night sky.

"Katara?" he asked hesitantly, loathing the idea of interrupting her and possibly breaking her concentration.

The still-liquid portion of her water sloshed to the ground; the ice crystals fell like shards of glass. "—Oh," she gasped, turning to face him quickly. "I didn't see you there…"

"I'm sorry…"

She shook her head. "No, it's all right. I was just…" She faltered a bit in her explanation. "I was trying to combine the cold water droplets with warm water vapor in the air…it's something Aang and I have done together, before." Katara blinked at her own mention of the airbender's name and looked momentarily thoughtful.

Zuko saw something warring in her eyes. Suddenly and inexplicably, he wanted her full attention directed toward him—he wanted to clear the confusion from her face as neatly as wiping steam from a clouded mirror. He made another attempt to draw her interest again.

_After all, might as well finish what you started, right?_

"It looks…complicated," he offered inelegantly, unsure of what else to say. She brightened and focused on him.

"It's not. It's just all about controlling the temperature of the water…I can't necessarily boil large enough volumes of it as hot as you can," and here Zuko felt the smallest tinge of pride—was she complimenting him?— "but I can control the water droplets in the air if it's warm, and combine them with colder droplets. Of course since it's nighttime now, the air is cooler, so it's a little more difficult…" She trailed off as though in thought, and it occurred to him that she was extremely distracted by something.

Zuko rubbed the back of his head, his discomfort palpable. He felt as though he were still treading on fine ice around the waterbender, or maybe turtleduck eggshells—he was terrified that one wrong move or phrase on his part would turn her against him again, and his last chance at learning from her would be forfeited.

He supposed it was his responsibility to bring the subject up, even though it had been her idea in the first place. "I thought…um…that you wanted to start our training?"

"Oh…you're right. I nearly forgot about it." Katara's eyes cleared to a brilliant blue in the moonlight. There was something in the depths he couldn't identify. "…Maybe it would be best if we started out with a little sparring, you know—so you could see how I use the water for movement." He saw her cast a glance upward at the moon in the sky—halved, not full—and for the first time that night he felt a true pang of apprehension, wondering just how powerful her bending might be.

"…Okay," he replied, somewhat uncertain.

"Let's begin, then." She took her stance, unfolding her arms outward and bending her knees. She waved her arms slowly, pointing two fingers of each hand as they moved through the air…and to the Fire Prince's surprise he saw the water coalesce from the thin air around her, the droplets merging and shimmering as they curled around her forearms and hands.

It was almost like watching his sister conjure lightning. _Only less terrifying_, he thought. _Slightly._

Zuko let his body fall into his own fighting form, still slightly hesitant but determined not to show it. He wasn't sure how sparring would allow him to learn much from her—after all, he would be busy fending off her attacks, rather than keenly observing her bending movements, and he needed to watch more than fight. His single brow fell into a light frown.

_She seems awfully serious about this._

Her eyebrows flew up in an arch, the only giveaway he noted before she fell into step and sent a rushing water-whip his way. He dodged it as best he could, throwing his arms up in defense, his fire splaying against the attack and dissipating into steam. Katara gave him about half a breath's rest and quickly chased after it with another one.

The second wave hit him with a force hard enough to knock him off of his feet; he went tumbling across the grass.

Zuko raised his head from where he lay soaking on the wet ground, his wounded eyes betraying him before he masked it and hardened his resolve. _So this is how these lessons are going to go_, he realized. _Fine…so be it, then._

He leapt to his feet—not yet ready to yield—and retook his stance. She was waiting for him. She plucked the air in a gentle motion to him with her fingers, beckoning.

Without thinking he easily took the bait and charged forward, fire flying from his fists. Katara blocked it, her shield spinning, and with her other hand and an exhale of her breath she spread a blanket of thick ice over the earth, effectively trapping his feet. His root was broken; he'd lost his balance. He quickly blew a hot gust of fire over his boots, freeing them. A ribbon of water snaked around one freed leg, grasping it, but he twisted and ducked low, and used his free foot to deliver a fiery kick. The ribbon was broken and he slid into a lunge, prepared to deliver a molten volley of heat in her direction.

But before he could, another jet of water—this time faster, and stronger—knocked him down and pummeled him, yelping in his surprise, into a nearby tree.

Zuko felt ragged as he pulled himself upright. She was stronger than he was at night, and she had the advantage. Somehow he had to remind her that he was on her side.

"…You've gotten…really good," he wheezed, in an attempt to placate her as he ducked between trees trying to evade, eventually stumbling back out into the open. It was a momentary reprieve to catch his breath. _Clumsy, Zuko._ And then— "Was everyone in the Southern Water Tribe as good as you are?"

He saw her body go rigid, saw the way the blue in her eyes suddenly and completely iced over, and suddenly realized he'd said something stupid. _Oh, crap._

"No," she hissed between clenched teeth, "_they weren't._"

She lunged and sent a cascade of ice blades hurtling at him, her eyes blazing and her lips twisted in a feral snarl. He just had time to throw up a shield of fire against them, but his defensive posture was lacking. He was off-balance.

"Did you forget?" she called out angrily over the roar of his fire. "You were there, when you first came to collect Aang—you saw there was no one left. I had to learn _by myself!_"

The water from the nearby stream rose in thick ropes, twisting and curling at her whim, and Zuko managed to dodge most of them as they grabbed for his limbs. He ducked and rolled out of their paths, and managed to conjure a fire-whip; for a few precious moments he felt control of the situation returning. But he could feel the strength of her bending increasing in proportion to her anger, and he was tiring. It wasn't long before one of the water-whips seized him and took him down once more, flattening him against the ground.

Panicked, he wracked his brain in an effort to remember what he'd heard about the Southern Tribe as he got to his feet. "There were only women and children, I remember, no men." He winced, teeth chattering from the cold. His tunic was soaked. "—But what happened to the waterbenders?"

"_Fire Navy raids_," she yelled. "All of them were taken or killed. And I—I was—" Her rage was making it hard for her to speak; her movements spoke for her, arms and hands slicing through the air, the water whipping into a frenzy in her fury. "—I don't have to explain it to _you! _You should _know!_"

He goaded her, even as he struggled to defend himself against her onslaught. He wanted to know—he _needed_ to know. "_Tell_ me! All of it!"

"My mother _died_," she shouted, "she died protecting the last waterbender!"

And with a wave of her arms the flow of the entire river was suddenly redirected, rising and becoming a towering wave that slammed directly into his chest, full force. He went sprawling across the forest floor, gasping.

Either Katara rode the wave she'd created, or she had run faster than he'd thought she could—more likely the former—but immediately after he hit the ground she was atop him, straddling his body with her knees, with a dagger of thick ice in one hand held at his exposed neck.

"It was_ me!" _she hissed into his face, hovering over him with the dagger and ready to run through his jugular at a second's notice. "_I was the last one!_"

Zuko lay still. He didn't dare breathe fire, much less speak—her eyes were wild with anger, and rife with pain, and he knew both of those well, _too well_—he could do nothing but simply lie still and surrender, his hands beside his head in supplication. He panted as he felt the cold sharp point of the dagger pressing against the skin of his neck.

Slowly her eyes cleared. Her breath came in gasps as his did, from their combined exertion, and the hand holding the ice blade wavered before it was finally lowered. He watched her eyes carefully. The look in the blue depths melted and changed, little by little, from hate and rage into sorrow and regret.

"Katara…I'm sorry," he whispered.

At his words the ice dagger became liquid, and fell from her hand to slosh wetly over his chest. She leaned away from him, sitting back, and he could no longer see the look in her eyes from the shadows of the trees above them.

"No…_I'm_ sorry," she whispered hesitantly, and his ears strained to hear her quieted voice. "It's not you, is it? I shouldn't have—" She lifted herself from his chest and moved quickly away, putting as much space between them as possible.

Zuko waited for a beat before raising himself on his elbows to regard her standing over him. She was obviously ashamed she'd lost her temper so violently, but because of it he felt he understood her, now—at least, better than he had before. She'd been carrying the emotional burden of what had happened to her mother for so long, like a river dammed up inside of her; it had only been a matter of time before it would burst.

Her words under Ba Sing Se came to him again, unbidden. _It's just…whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was…your face I saw._

His single brow furrowed with determination as he recalled it. _I'll __**make**__ her see me as more than just the enemy, even if it means I have to prove it to her over and over again._

"…We'll call it quits for tonight," Katara was mumbling, "we can continue this tomorrow night…I'm really sor—"

"—No."

She stopped, confused.

Zuko rose to his feet, still weary but with renewed purpose. He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily, steaming his clothes dry.

"Let's continue," he told her, holding her gaze. His voice was firm.

Katara hesitated, before nodding and retaking her fighting stance.

-o-

-o-

It was still dark, the night pitch-black around him, as Aang leapt gracefully from building to building. As he did, he called out for his friend in a harsh whisper: "…Bumi?..._Bumi!_..."

A wheezy, cracked voice spoke up from one of the dark, abandoned warehouses adjacent to him. "…Over here, Aang! Ehehehehe!"

"Bumi!" The airbender's voice was joyful at seeing him again, despite the fact that the Earth King was still imprisoned. Aang landed his glider with a flourish before the large metal cage.

"Bumi, I can't believe you're still here, and shackled up like this," he lamented, "but don't worry! I found an earthbending teacher—and she's so strong that she can even bend _metal!_" He grinned widely. "So don't worry, okay? We're going to get you out of here, as soon as poss—"

"_Aang!_" Bumi interrupted impatiently, his craggy brows furrowing on his head. "Didn't you remember what I told you, the last time you were here? About Neutral Jing?"

Aang's posture deflated, and he looked stricken. "Yes, I remember, but—"

"Then you know why I haven't done anything yet to free myself! I'm still waiting and listening for the right moment to strike, and it hasn't happened yet!"

The airbender was visibly upset. "But _how long_ are you going to wait?" he demanded. "Don't you want to get out? You can't just sit in here forever! Your city needs you—the inhabitants of Omashu want to return home! And we need to defeat the Fire Nation in any way we ca—"

"All in good time, my friend." Bumi's cackling laughter and snorting reverberated through the empty warehouse.

"But…Bumi," Aang protested, "there's something else you have to help me with, and it's the other reason I came back to see you so soon."

The fuzzy white caterpillars above the old man's eyes lifted. "Oh?..."

"The survivors of the Western Air Temple," the young monk explained. "There were surviving Airbenders, from one hundred years ago, and a scroll that I found linked them to Omashu." Aang's voice turned anxious and pleading as he saw the Earth King duck his head slightly. "Please! You have to tell me where their descendents are! How can I get in touch with them?"

Bumi was uncharacteristically serious. "I'm…I'm sorry, Aang. I don't know anything about such Airbenders." He raised his eyes again to regard the Avatar. "I've never heard anything about survivors from the last Fire Nation raid."

Aang's face fell in surprise and dismay. "_What?_ …But…but that can't be," he whispered, disbelieving, "I _saw_ one of them. I saw a girl who was an Airbender!"

Bumi shrugged, as well as he could in his iron cage.

Aang his staff fall to the floor and he slumped to a sitting position on the ground before his friend, lowering his head. "…But now she's gone. And I can't find them. I was sure they were here…I was sure you knew something about them that could help me find them." He sighed, dejectedly, and dropped his head into his hands. "…What am I going to do _now?_..."

"Hmmm." The old Earth King rolled his eyes as if in thought. "Well, since we're not doing anything at the moment and have nowhere to be, why don't we just have a little chat?" He gave Aang a scraggly-toothed grin. "Why don't you fill me in on what's been going on in the world, in my absence?"

From between his fingers Aang peered up at Bumi, exasperated.

-o-

-o-

Zuko crashed head-first into his sleeping bag hours later, with an exhausted groan.

He was never going to get any proper training in waterbending techniques this way. Having Katara pummel him to within an inch of his life was not going to make him learn anything, except finding out exactly how much punishment at the hands of a waterbender he could take. _She's going to kill me._

Nearby, he could hear the sounds of rustling and movement—someone was awake and moving about, but as worn out as he was, he had no energy left to raise his head.

"Hey, _Hotpants_," the whisper came, in a girl's voice sweet as hot-spun lemongrass sugar candy. _Toph._ "We know you were practicing with Katara, this whole time…you're really not much of a night person, are you?"

Without lifting his head, he replied into his pillow. "…She's going to kill me."

"Don't tell me you're _tired?_ Don't you feel like doing a little more _sparring~?_"

He gave a broken moan into his pillow as part of his answer, and there was a chorus of snickers in response. "…Leave me alone," he whined. The sun was coming up in a few hours, and he with it, and his very bones ached with fatigue.

"So Zuko, you feel like doing some _sword training_, right now?" Sokka asked, prompting a round of giggling from the earthbender. "I really think I need some help with it. Like, hours of it. Of course this means I'd like to start out by having you just stand there, _without weapons_, and I'll come at you with the space sword, and you can just tell me if I'm doing the stances correctly, or if I need help with my form—"

"Please," the Prince mumbled, "stop…no more…I have to get to sleep…" The girlish snickering and giggling persisted.

"I'd also like to start practicing kickboxing," Sokka deadpanned seriously, and this time Toph couldn't hold back her guffaws. "But I don't have a punching bag. I wanna know if it's cool with you if I try it out on you, you know, just a few kicks—"

Zuko's groan turned into a growl as he flipped the pillow over and cocooned his head in it. It was going to be a long—short—rest of the night.

-o-

-o-

Hours later, Bumi and Aang were still deep in conversation.

"So, your energy is blocked in the seventh chakra, after you were hit by the Princess's lightning?" the king asked, twisting his jaw thoughtfully. "That's the chakra of earthly attachment, I believe, isn't it?"

"…Yes." Aang's eyes were downcast. "I tried to release it, but…" An image of Katara swam in his vision; he recalled the moment with Guru Pahtik, when he was asked to let go of her. He saw her bending her element, laughing as it danced and swirled around her, and he bit his lip in shame and frustration and bowed his head. "I just couldn't."

"So you haven't been able to activate the Avatar State again either, because of it?" Bumi questioned, his face belying his concern.

"No, I haven't."

"Aang, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how serious this problem of yours is," Bumi said gravely. "If you cannot release your earthly attachments, you cannot unblock your seventh chakra. And if you can't unblock your seventh chakra, you can't hope to defeat Fire Lord Ozai—"

"—I _know_," the airbender responded testily, his brow furrowed. "I've been trying to figure out how to do it, but it's—it's too hard!" He ground his fists as he looked up again at the Earth King. "Isn't there a way I can still activate the Avatar State without giving up my earthly attachments? I mean, it can't be as cut and dry as that…the _other_ Avatars were attached to—to things too, right? There's got to be a way to have both…"

"_Aang,_" Bumi said in a stern voice, and the Avatar stopped. "You still haven't taken my advice. This is, again, about Neutral Jing. Too often in our lives we become focused on trying to get our own way, pushing our own will, that we forget to slow down and wait for an answer to be revealed. Too often, by attempting to make hasty decisions, we forget that our choices will have consequences. If you try and force something too hard to bend to your will, it will only end for you in disaster and defeat."

"But—"

"Sometimes we need to wait and listen for our next move. Sometimes, we need to pay more attention to the state of the world around us…and then we will have the knowledge revealed to us as to how to handle the situation."

Raising his eyes again to meet Bumi's, Aang seemed calmer, more centered. "So…you think I should just wait, before I do anything?"

Bumi nodded from his metal prison. "Your answers will be revealed to you in time, Avatar Aang. In the meantime…oooh, the sun is finally coming up," he noted, turning his eyes to the nearby window to witness the sunrise. "It's about time! Perhaps it's a good time to work a little more on your earthbending, don'tcha think? I've been itching to see just how much you've learned from this new teacher of yours that you've spoken so much of!"

And with that, two large boulders of rock came bursting through the wall of the warehouse, crushing the metal cage he was imprisoned in at the corners. The iron frame bent and creaked, and the metal fell apart around him like harmless planks of wood.

"_Bumi?"_ Aang cried in surprise, leaping to his feet. "What—what are you doing?"

King Bumi stood before him, shirtless, flexing his arms and hands after disuse and loosening the kinks in his neck. "What am I doing?" he repeated, giggling and snorting, "I'm _taking back my city!_"

-o-

-o-

-o-

-o-


End file.
